Former Part-time Coach Sentenced 15 Years on Child Pornography Charges
BIRMINGHAM - A federal judge today sentenced a former part-time middle school coach to 15 years in prison for receiving, possessing and distributing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley.
U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor sentenced JAMES EDWARD CORBITT, 34, of Hoover, to prison and ordered him to remain on supervised release for the rest of his life after completing the prison sentence.
“This defendant had thousands of images of child pornography on his computer. He violated the trust of two young boys and exploited them by secretly filming them,” Vance said. “Like many child predators, he found a job where he was surrounded by children and was able to gain their trust – and abuse it. Our job is to protect our children,” she said, “and we achieve that goal today, seeing Corbitt sentenced to 15 years in prison.”
“The sentence handed down today should serve as a warning to anyone who is inclined to victimize our children by possessing, receiving and manufacturing child pornography,” Maley said.
Corbitt pleaded guilty in November to charges that he received, possessed and distributed images of child pornography using a peer-to-peer file sharing program on his home computer. He admitted sharing thousands of pictures of nude children and children involved in sexual activity, most of them between 9 and 14 years old, according to the plea agreement.
CORBITT also acknowledged that he had used a hidden pen camera to secretly film the two minor boys at his apartment. Those videos were uploaded and added to his shared folder on the file sharing network, according to the plea agreement.
CORBITT possessed 56,689 still images of child pornography and 5,060 video images of child pornography, according to court records.
CORBITT had worked as a part-time coach at Bumpus Middle School in Hoover for about nine years, but was not coaching for the school at the time of his March 31, 2010, arrest.
The FBI investigated this case, with support from the Hoover Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel Fortune and Jim Phillips prosecuted the case.