Tucson Man Sentenced To 297 Months In Prison For Producing Child Pornography

TUCSON, Ariz. – On April 23, 2014, Lance Robert Fries, 43, of Tucson, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps to 297 months imprisonment as a result of his guilty plea on Oct. 2, 2013, to two counts of production of child pornographyFries’ term of imprisonment will be followed by lifetime supervised release, with stringent sex offender conditions, including the condition that he register as a sex offender.

                  Fries was indicted on Jan. 30, 2013, by a federal Grand Jury after an investigation revealed that Fries sexually abused a toddler multiple times, and allowed the abuse to be watched by others via webcam over the internet.  Videos memorializing the abuse were discovered in two separate child exploitation investigations involving other defendants in Oregon and Florida.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.

The investigation in this case was conducted by U.S. Immigration Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, Tucson.  The prosecution was handled by Carmen F. Corbin and Carin C. Duryee, District of Arizona, Tucson.

CASE NUMBER:           CR-13-0146-TUC-JGZ  
RELEASE NUMBER:   2014-024_Fries
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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/