Abilene Man Admits Possessing Prepubescent Child Pornography

ABILENE, Texas — Charles Coci, 26, of Abilene, Texas, appeared today in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Scott Frost and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of prepubescent child pornography, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Coci, who is on bond, faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. Sentencing will be set at a later date.

According to documents filed in the case, Coci used a laptop computer at his residence to search the Internet for images and videos of child pornography. In the course of searching for this material, Coci located, downloaded and viewed numerous images and videos constituting child pornography, and some of those images involved prepubescent minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Abilene Police Department and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lubbock, Texas, is in charge of the prosecution.