United States Attorney David Capp

Northern District of Indiana

5400 Federal Plaza, Suite 1500

Hammond, Indiana 46320

Hammond South Bend Fort Wayne

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Mary Hatton

November 16, 2012 PHONE: (219) 937-5603

www.usdoj.gov/usao/inn/ FAX (219) 852-2770

WEEK IN REVIEW – HAMMOND

Hammond, Indiana - The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court:

DISPOSITIONS:

Ø Alexander Torres Rivera, 38, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to 1year of probation to include 10 months of home detention after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dean Lanter.

Ø Ryan Douglas, 31, of Cedar Lake, Indiana, a defendant in the case US v Powell et al., was sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to 100 months imprisonment and 5 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy to distribute heroin. This case was the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Chang-Adiga.

Ø Robert Billings, 34, of Valparaiso, Indiana, was sentenced by District Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen to 151 months imprisonment and 25 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of receipt of child pornography. According to the complaint affidavit filed in this case, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Billings’ residence and found numerous computers, hard drives, digital storage media and related items that showed Billings had shared multiple child pornography images on the internet via a P2P file sharing program between January 2011 and March 2011. This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill Koster.