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AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885
January 5, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEVERN MAN SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS IN PRISON FOR PRODUCING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Induced Four Minor Girls to Produce Multiple Pornographic Images; Extorted Money
BALTIMORE, Maryland - Danny Fleck, age 60, of Severn, Maryland, was sentenced today to 14 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release for sexually exploiting a minor to produce sexually explicit pictures of the minor and attempting to transport child pornography, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis also ordered that Fleck must register as a sex offender after his release from prison.
U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said "Through lies and manipulation over a long period of time, Danny Fleck caused four young girls to use I-zone cameras, video cameras and a web camera to take sexually-explicit pictures of themselves. Through the cooperation of law enforcement under the Project Safe Childhood program, predators like Danny Fleck are being brought to justice and removed from society for years to come.”
According to the statement of facts presented to the court at his June 29, 2006 guilty plea and evidence presented at today’s sentencing hearing, from 1998 to 2003 Fleck contacted eight underage girls through the Internet, making repeated contact with some of the girls over a period of several years. After communicating with the girls through Internet chat rooms, the U.S. mails, email and phone calls, Fleck induced four of the minor females to produce sexually explicit pictures, a video and webcam sessions of themselves.
According to evidence presented at the sentencing hearing, Fleck would typically contact minor teenage girls, identifying himself as a teenager named Zane, Danny Zane or Daniel Zane. He would send the girls a picture of an attractive young boy, claiming that it was him. In several cases, he persuaded the girls to take nude pictures of themselves, using I-zone or Polaroid cameras which would not require the film to be developed at an outside developer, and to send the photos to him through the mail. He also convinced some of the girls to take sexually explicit videos or to participate in sexually explicit web cam sessions. In two instances, when the girls sought to end the relationship, Fleck threatened them, telling each girl that he had a video and/or photos of her which he would show to her parents and/or post on the internet. In one case he extorted $240 from a young girl in exchange for not sending her parents a sexually explicit video of herself that Fleck claimed he had created.
On October 27, 2003, Fleck attempted to carry photographs and a video of female minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct onto a flight departing the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Transportation Security Administration security officers searched Fleck’s carry-on bag because it contained a number of items that could not be taken inside the security perimeter of the airport, including pocket knives and torch lighters. When they opened the bag, they also discovered the child pornography and alerted Maryland Transportation Authority Police officers.
A later search revealed that Fleck possessed a plethora of pornographic images of children as well as electronic files with at least 40 additional images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the investigative work performed by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Harry M. Gruber and Andrew G. W. Norman, who prosecuted the case.
This page last modified—January 5, 2007