06/09/2009
Lincoln County Man Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Prison for Receiving Child Pornography
Portland, Ore. – A former Lincoln County realtor was sentenced this afternoon in federal court following his plea of guilty to receiving child pornography. Gerhard “Gary” Geisler, 66, who resides in Otis, Oregon, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown to five years’ imprisonment followed by a five-year term of supervised release. Geisler will be subject to a number of stringent conditions during his term of supervised release. Geisler, who has been out of custody pending sentencing, will begin serving his sentence on July 23, 2009.
The charge against Geisler arose from a nationwide undercover investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The investigation focused on commercial Internet web sites that offered images of child pornography to paid subscribers. The investigation revealed that Geisler repeatedly paid for subscription access to a variety of commercial child pornography web sites over the course of several months in 2003.
In May 2007, ICE Special Agents contacted Geisler at his residence and obtained his computer. A forensic examination of the computer revealed both still and video images of child pornography. Geisler was arrested in Lincoln County on April 1, 2008. A search of his home resulted in the seizure of another computer, which was also found to contain child pornography, some of it downloaded from a paid subscription web site as recently as March 2008.
In imposing the sentence, Judge Brown described Geisler’s offense as a “pervasive and devastating crime.” She described his conduct as nothing less than “deplorable.” At the same time, she also noted that Geisler has no prior criminal history and has tremendous support from family members and friends in the community, many of whom attended the sentencing hearing. Judge Brown imposed the sentence to deter both Geisler and others who would engage in similar conduct.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
