FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
August 8, 2011	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 2:11-CR-7 JAM

            SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that today United States District Judge John A. Mendez sentenced Bruce Clinton Johnson, 87, of Oroville, to five years in prison for conspiring to possess child pornography. His son, Donald Wayne Johnson, 47, also of Oroville, pleaded guilty on March 22, 2011, to receiving child pornography and was sentenced by Judge Mendez on June 21, 2011 to 15 years in prison.

            According to court documents, on November 11, 2010, a computer repairmen contacted Butte County Sheriff’s Deputies after he found animated images of child pornography on a printer belonging to Donald Johnson. Between April 11, 2007 and November 8, 2010, IP addresses linked to Bruce Johnson’s residence that he shared with his son were identified offering images and videos of child pornography through a file-sharing network.

            On November 23, 2010, law enforcement officials searched the residence and found several computers and other digital storage devices that contained images of child pornography. A computer in Donald Johnson’s room contained over 3,000 images of the sexual molestation of children. According to court documents, the two men downloaded these images from the Internet using file-sharing programs on their computers and then saved some of the images onto CDs, SD cards, and external hard drives and stored them in their residence so that they could be viewed at later times.

            Judge Mendez said that Bruce Johnson was the oldest person who had ever come before him to be sentenced, and he questioned openly how a person the defendant’s age could become involved in conspiring to download and view child pornography. In sentencing the defendant to the statutory maximum sentence, Judge Mendez acknowledged that given the defendant’s age, 60 months in prison would likely amount to a life sentence. Nonetheless, Judge Mendez found such a sentence to be an appropriate one given the facts of this case.

            This case is the product of an investigation by the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Reardon prosecuted the case. The Sacramento ICAC is a federally and state funded task force managed by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department comprised of agents from federal, state, and local agencies. The purpose of the Sacramento ICAC is to investigate online child exploitation crimes, including child pornography, enticement, and sex trafficking.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC mobilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator

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