United States Attorney Leura G. Canary Middle District of Alabama

ENTERPRISE MAN SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS ON
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGE

MONTGOMERY, Ala.— Gregory James Shiver, age 52, of Enterprise, Alabama, has been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison for possessing child pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252A. The sentence was imposed by the Honorable L. Scott Coogler, United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, who found that Mr. Shiver had used his computer to possess more than 150 images of child pornography, and that some of the images depicted acts of sexual violence toward young children. Judge Coogler also found that Mr. Shiver had engaged in a pattern of activity involving the sexual abuse of a minor, and that, in light of his defense at trial, he had not fully accepted responsibility for his conduct, U.S. Attorney Leura G. Canary announced today.

The case against Mr. Shiver began in late December 2004, when officers with the Dothan Police Department and the Enterprise Police Department were notified that Mr. Shiver had allegedly molested a five-year-old girl. Upon execution of a federal search warrant, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized Mr. Shiver’s home computer and turned it over to the United States Postal Inspection Service for forensic analysis. Nearly 300 images of suspected child pornography were found on the hard drive of the computer. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was able to identify seven of the children depicted in the images as known child victims from other states and countries.

Mr. Shiver will serve his federal prison sentence concurrently with a state sentence for sexual abuse of a minor. When he is released from prison, Mr. Shiver will be required to register as a convicted sex offender, and under the terms of his sentence, he will remain under the close supervision of the United States Probation Office for the rest of his life. The sentencing order includes a series of conditions and restrictions for Mr. Shiver’s release, including that he is not to have any unsupervised interaction with minors and that he may not use a computer outside of work.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood. In May 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan D. Stump represented the United States at the sentencing.