A Gainesville man was arrested Thursday on charges of possessing child pornography and animal abuse material.
Following a nearly yearlong investigation, Gainesville Police Department officers arrested 37-year-old Daniel Hanna. Officers reportedly found over 2,606 images and videos of child sexual abuse material on two separate devices.
On May 23, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip from Dropbox reporting user account “John Weir” for uploading child sexual abuse material, according to the arrest report. The tip included 163 videos uploaded to Dropbox by the suspect’s account between Dec. 7, 2014, and Oct. 1, 2015. The suspect attempted to share one of the videos on May 23, 2024.
GPD officers used the IP tracking service MaxMind to trace two of the suspect’s login IP addresses to Verizon Wireless and Cox Communications, which had been subleased to an unknown user in Gainesville. In June, a GPD detective issued subpoenas to Cox Communications, Verizon and Yahoo — the email service connected to the suspect’s email account. The detective also authorized a lawful search warrant of the contents of the suspect's Dropbox account, requesting records from Dec. 6, 2014 to May 23, 2024
The detective received a response from Dropbox three days later, revealing the suspect’s account reportedly contained 244 videos depicting child sexual abuse and 37 additional videos with “age questionable” content.
Cox Communications provided the suspect’s residential address in July, and Yahoo disclosed the suspect’s recovery email addresses and phone numbers. Yahoo also listed the user’s full name as “Reggie Hanna” and included his city, state and zip code. Later in the month, Verizon responded with a phone number linked to the suspect, a Hawthorne address and the name Daniel R Hanna.
A review of Gainesville Regional Utilities utilities records for Hanna’s Gainesville address, which he’d moved to in 2023, showed the account was in his name and remained active.
Officers executed a search warrant at Hanna’s residence in March, where law enforcement made contact with him.
According to the arrest report, the search revealed numerous electronic devices, a child-like sex doll torso with a female child’s size six underwear on it and other pairs of children's underwear.
Officers located a least two of the defendant's devices containing child sexual abuse material.
On one device, officers reportedly found 2,556 images and videos of child sexual abuse material, 548 of which involved infants and toddlers, 269 involving objects and sex toys and 108 involving BDSM and violence against a child. There were also three images and videos of bestiality, according to the arrest report.
On the second device, officers found over 50 images and videos of child pornography.
Hanna was arrested Thursday and charged with 14 felony counts, including possession of child pornography and animal cruelty content.
Contact Annie Wang at awang@alligator.org. Follow her on X @wynwg.
Annie Wang is a metro general assignment reporter and a second-year journalism major. She has previously worked on the university desk as the university administration reporter. She enjoys reading and writing book reviews in her spare time.
