March 27, 2009
For more information contact:
Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Dixie A. Morrow
(850) 444-4000
PERDIDO KEY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
Pensacola, Florida - United States Attorney Thomas F. Kirwin, Northern District of Florida, announced today that Richard Allen Weeks, 35, of Pensacola, Florida, pled guilty to the receipt and possession of child pornography. Weeks was earlier indicted by a federal grand jury on these two counts of violating federal law regarding the exploitation of children online.
Weeks admitted today that he utilized the Internet to download images and videos of child pornography from late 2008 through early 2009. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant on Weeks’ home based upon his use of file sharing programs that enabled them to track Weeks’ activity. This resulted in the seizure of a significant amount of child pornography located on Weeks’ laptop computer and external hard drives. Law enforcement officers also found and seized digital camera cards that contained images of Weeks engaged in sexual acts with a minor relative.
Weeks will be sentenced by United States District Judge M. Casey Rodgers on June 26, 2009. He faces a mandatory minimum of 5 years to a maximum 20 years imprisonment, and a life term of supervised release thereafter.
The investigation was spearheaded by the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, commonly known as the “ICAC.” The ICAC includes members of the Pensacola Police Department, the Milton Police Department, the Pensacola Junior College Police Department, the Fort Walton Police Department, the Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton County Sheriff’s Offices, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Office of the Attorney General, the Florida Division of Probation and Parole, the Florida Division of Children and Family Services and Child Protection Team, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David L. Goldberg.