AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885

JANUARY 27, 2006

MONTANA MAN SENTENCED TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON IN CHILD PORN PRODUCTION CASE

BALTIMORE, Maryland – United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announces that United States District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Thomas Evered, age 39, of Lolo, Montana, to 10 years in prison followed by supervised release for life in connection with his February 16, 2005 guilty plea to sexually exploiting a minor boy for the purpose of producing child pornography. Judge Blake also ordered that Evered have no unsupervised contact with minors and must register as a sex offender.

U.S. Attorney Rosenstein said, "Mr. Evered admitted that he sexually abused a child and produced child pornography. Today's sentencing holds him accountable for his reprehensible conduct."

According to a statement of facts presented to the court, in 2003 a Maryland FBI agent downloaded an image file from the Internet which showed Evered and a minor boy engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Due to the background visible in the photograph, the agent believed that it was produced in the United States. On February 21, 2004 a redacted image was shown on the television program America’s Most Wanted, resulting in the identification of Evered as the adult in the image. Evered was arrested in February, 2004, by Missoula County Sheriff’s Deputies after he turned himself in at a convenience store in Lolo, Montana. Thereafter, the FBI obtained evidence that the image was produced in the house where Evered resided and that Evered had custody of the minor boy.

Further investigation revealed that Evered was employed as a tractor-trailer driver and traveled though out the United States, including Maryland. Evered possessed CD-ROMs containing images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct while driving his tractor-trailer through Maryland.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its investigative work and praised Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew G. W. Norman, who prosecuted the case.