Crimes against Children 6-29-12

Richmond, VA
A retired Henrico County sheriff's deputy will serve 95 months in prison, a month short of eight years, for viewing child pornography on the Internet.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson imposed the punishment this morning in Richmond against John Harlan Mullins, 53, agreeing to a downward departure from sentencing guidelines because Mullins had not dispersed the images elsewhere and because only a fraction of the images -- seven of 1,561 -- depicted bestiality or sadomasochism, which elevate sentencing.

Mullins retired last June as a deputy of 22 years in Henrico, a month after federal agents executed a search warrant at his apartment in the 9000 block of Patterson Avenue.

Christopher Collins, Mullins' lawyer, argued this morning that Mullins had never forwarded the images to other users and said that Mullins never actually viewed the images involving the more egregious acts. Mullins told the court that he had first viewed pornogrpahy as a 14 year-old and became addicted some eight years ago.

Henrico authorities realized in 2004 that Mullins was viewing pornographic images and referred him to counseling but allowed him to remain on the job, accoridng to information presented in court today. Many of the children in the images have been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sacramento, CA
A federal grand jury indicted four men charging them with attempting to entice a minor to engage in prohibited sexual conduct, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. The men were identified while they were online seeking to have sex with minors. In each case, the men allegedly traveled to meet the fictional minor where they were arrested by law enforcement.

These cases are the result of an undercover investigation by the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force; with assistance provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Sacramento ICAC is a federally and state-funded task force managed by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department with agents from federal, state, and local agencies. The Sacramento ICAC investigates online child exploitation crimes, including child pornography, enticement, and sex trafficking. Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Reardon is prosecuting the cases.