BOISE – Donn Michael Casper, 39, of Meridian, Idaho, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Edward J. Lodge this morning to 180 months in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for producing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Judge Lodge also ordered Casper to pay a $1,500 fine and attend sex offender treatment.

Casper pled guilty in November 2011 to four counts of sexual exploitation of children/production of sexually explicit images of minors. At his plea hearing, Casper admitted using cameras hidden in his home to surreptitiously produce sexually explicit videos of four underage males between August 2008 and June 2011. The minors did not know they were being recorded.

According to court documents, the investigation began when Canadian police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began a joint investigation into the worldwide commercial distribution of child pornography via U.S. Mail and the Internet. During the investigation, Canadian investigators uncovered information that a suspect in Toronto was receiving child pornography from a computer traced to Casper's home in Meridian. On June 29, 2011, federal investigators and local law enforcement executed a search warrant at Casper's home and seized numerous electronic media, storage devices, and a cache of DVDs hidden in a crawl space that was accessible only through the closet in Casper's bedroom. The DVDs contained videos depicting sexually explicit images of minors that Casper had produced. Further investigation led to the identification of four local victims. Investigators found no evidence that any videos of the local victims were distributed.

Casper was ordered to forfeit six computers, a DVD player, seven hard drives, cellular telephones, digital cameras, a video camera, monitors, and all electronic media used in the offense.

“This case is an excellent example of how proactive efforts by law enforcement to investigate those who are suspected of trafficking in child pornography can lead to actual handson offenders who are molesting children,” said Olson. She cited a meta-analysis of peer reviewed studies published in December 2010 by Canadian researcher Michael Seto and others, finding that approximately fifty-five percent of individuals apprehended for child pornography offenses eventually admit they have molested children.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in conjunction with the Toronto (Canada) Police Service, the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), and the Meridian Police Department.