Crimes against Children 7-11-12

Denver, CO
Jesse Evans, age 30, of Denver, Colorado, was arrested based on a criminal complaint late last week on charges of production and possession of child pornography, the United States Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Denver Police Department announced. The criminal complaint was obtained on June 29, 2012. The arrest took place without incident that same day.

Evans has appeared in U.S. District Court in Denver on July 6, 2012, where a U.S. Magistrate Judge found that there was probable cause that he committed the child exploitation crimes. The magistrate judge also ordered Evans held in custody without bond pending a resolution of his case.

According to the facts contained in the affidavit associated with the criminal complaint, on January 3, 2012, a Denver Police Department (DPD) detective initiated a child exploitation investigation. The DPD detective, acting in an undercover capacity, downloaded child pornography from another computer that was using peer-to-peer software to share files. The IP address the detective was downloading the files from had file names indicative of child pornography.

Baltimore, MD
U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg sentenced Michael Gavel, III, age 38, of Baltimore, Maryland, today to seven years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for distributing child pornography. Judge Legg ordered that upon his release from prison, Gavel must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). In addition, Judge Legg ordered that Gavel pay restitution totaling $1,000 to two victims identified during previous child pornography investigations, whose images Gavel had downloaded from the Internet.

According to the plea agreement, on January 5, 2011, an undercover Baltimore County Police detective downloaded six files from a file sharing program Gavel was running from his home computer. The files contained visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Baltimore County Police subsequently obtained a search warrant for Gavel’s residence and seized a laptop computer and several thumb drives. A forensic examination of the computer and media revealed that there were over 600 images of children, including prepubescent minors, engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including sadistic or masochistic conduct, or other depictions of violence. During an interview, Gavel admitted that he used a file sharing program to download, trade, and view child pornography and made the files publicly available for download.

Albuquerque, NM
This morning in federal court, Justin Gray, 34, of Ruidoso, New Mexico, pled guilty to a receipt of a visual depiction of a minor child engaged in sexually explicit conduct charge under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said that the plea agreement requires that Gray be sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Gray also will be required to register as a sex offender.

Gray was indicted on July 13, 2011, in a six-count indictment charging him with three counts of distribution and attempted distribution of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct; one count of receipt of visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; and two counts of possession of matter containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to the indictment, Gray distributed child pornography in October 2010, November 2010 and February 2011; received child pornography in September 2010; and possessed child pornography in March 2011.

Springfield, IL
Stephen R. Wigginton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on July 10, 2012, Donald R. Campbell, 49, of Mt. Carmel, Illinois, was named in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury sitting in Benton, Illinois. Campbell’s arraignment on the charges is currently set for Monday, July 16, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. at the federal court in Benton, Illinois.

Both counts of the indictment charge Campbell with enticing a minor to engage in sex acts while he videotaped the events.

The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Southern Illinois Cyber Crimes Task Force and a number of state and local law enforcement agencies.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

New Bern, NC
United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that in federal court yesterday United States District Judge Louise W. Flanagan sentenced Matthew Bryan Warford, 21, to 180 months’ imprisonment, followed by a life time of supervised release. A federal grand jury returned a criminal indictment on October 25, 2011. On February 16, 2012, Warford pled guilty to transportation of child pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(2). According to the indictment on August 22, 2010, Warford transported images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. According to the investigation, in March 2011, law enforcement received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that child pornography had been uploaded to Photobucket.com. Law enforcement tracked the IP address to Warford’s Wilmington, North Carolina residence. While conducting an interview, law enforcement learned that Warford was a registered sex offender from a 2009 conviction.

This case was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level. For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.