FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Friday, July 20, 2012
Docket #: 2:11-CR-00312 GEB

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Wilfred Frank Luce Jr., 49, of Stockton, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. to 12 and a half years in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, for receiving child pornography.

 According to court documents, beginning on March 12, 2011, law enforcement identified Luce’s computer offering files of child pornography through an Internet file-sharing service. When detectives served a federal search warrant at Luce’s residence in Stockton, a file-sharing program was actively downloading child pornography. In total, Luce downloaded 440 images and 212 videos of child pornography.

In sentencing Luce, Judge Burrell said that the nature and circumstances of the offense warranted the sentence that he imposed. Judge Burrell said that the minors in the images were “sexual abuse victims,” part of a market for images of children that Luce’s activities help to perpetuate. Judge Burrell went on to say that Luce’s actions fueled “a trespass against the kids’ dignity [and] could cause those victims to become part of a subculture in which they don’t respect themselves and others, and increases the likelihood that others in the future may be similarly raped and abused.” Judge Burrell also noted that Luce had been investigated by Stockton Police in 2008 for possession of child pornography. In light of that fact, Judge Burrell expressed concern about the risk the defendant posed to the community.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, 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 prosecuted the case.

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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

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