Campbellsville Man Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison For Distributing And Possessing Child Pornography

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Campbellsville man who previously pled guilty to violating federal child exploitation laws, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release yesterday, by Chief United States District Court Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Michael William Bolter, age 42, pleaded guilty to a two-count Indictment on November 15, 2013. The Indictment charged him with distributing and possessing child pornography. Bolter had a 2001 child pornography conviction in Bristol Superior Court of Massachusetts.

While working online in an undercover capacity on December 19, 2012, a Deputy Sheriff in Taylor County observed an IP address for a computer that had been sharing images of child pornography. The Deputy Sheriff downloaded numerous files of child pornography from the computer with the previously-identified IP address. He obtained and executed a state search warrant (on January 29, 2013), at the physical address associated with the IP address during which law enforcement officials seized a Toshiba laptop.

Law enforcement officials identified Michael William Bolter as the person using the computer to trade child pornography. During an interview conducted simultaneously with execution of the search warrant, Bolter admitted that child pornography images would be on his computer. Subsequent forensic examination of the computer by the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed approximately 3,000 still images and 50 movie files containing child pornography. Many of the files were recovered from a folder labeled AMy shared folder@ within a peer-to-peer file sharing program on the Toshiba laptop.

Assistant U. S. Attorney Jo E. Lawless prosecuted the case. The Taylor County Sheriff’s Department and Louisville Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (both members of the Kentucky Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force), conducted the investigation.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab.