Washington, D.C. – James Sampson, a 73-year-old resident of Frederick, Maryland, was sentenced to five years in prison today by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer following the defendant’s plea on April 21, 2008, to transportation of child pornography and enticing a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy L. Lanier, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

According to the evidence presented at the time of the plea hearing, on November 6, 2007, a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, who was undercover and posing as a pedophile, entered a Yahoo pedophile fetish chat room. Within minutes, the defendant contacted the undercover and asked, “how old is your daughter?” The undercover officer responded that his daughter was 12 years-old. The defendant informed the undercover officer that he wanted to have sex with his daughter. Over the course of the next several weeks, the defendant offered to pay $100 for sex with the undercover officer’s “daughter.” In fact, the defendant wanted the “daughter” to come to his house in Frederick when his wife was out of town, or the defendant would go to the purported “father’s” house to have sex with the girl there.

On November 14, 2007, the defendant sent the undercover officer a video, via e-mail, depicting an adult male having sex with a five-year-old girl. On December 29, 2007, the undercover officer, now posing as the “daughter,” sent an e-mail to the defendant telling him that her “daddy” wanted her to e-mail the defendant to say “hi.” Thereafter, the defendant e-mailed the “daughter,” told her that he wanted her to come to his house in April, that he would reward her with gifts and asked her if she had ever experienced a particular sexual act. Over the course of the next few days, the defendant sent a card and money to an address given to the defendant by the undercover.

On January 17, 2008, a search warrant was executed at the defendant’s house and the defendant was arrested.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood and the District of Columbia District of Columbia MPD/FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

In announcing today’s sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor, MPD Chief Lanier, and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini commended the outstanding investigative work of D.C. Metropolitan Police Detectives Jonathan Andrews, Timothy Palchak, and Miguel Miranda. In addition, they commended Special Agents Michael French, Jill Blackman and Scott Schelbe and Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein, who prosecuted the case.