The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Helena, on October 18, 2012, before Senior U.S. District Judge Charles C. Lovell, THEODORE J. CASTINE, a 54-year-old resident of Moorseville, North Carolina, appeared for sentencing. CASTINE was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 180 months

Special Assessment: $200

Supervised Release: life

CASTINE was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to (2) counts of sexual exploitation of children.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia K. Hurd, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

On September 15, 2011, the Helena Police Department received a report from a 14-year-old female that she had been receiving threatening and harassing text messages from a cell phone number. During the course of the investigation, the girl indicated she had been contacted by an unknown subject via Facebook asking to exchange "bikini" pictures. The subject provided the same cell phone number daring her to send pictures because the subject told the girl she was "hot." The girl told officers that a couple of text messages she received from the subject contained photographs of two different young girls, naked and exposing their genitalia in a lewd and lascivious manner. The girl said the subject was demanding photographs in the same fashion to be sent via picture messaging.

The girl indicated that the subject began harassing her about sending nude photographs of herself, including that if she did not send naked photographs, like those that had been sent to her instructing her how to pose, the subject indicated he was going to find the girl and she would not like what was going to happen when the subject found her. The girl said she felt compelled and was fearful if she refused the orders of the subject sending her the messages. The girl took two naked photographs of herself posing in a lascivious exhibition of her genitals and sent them via her cell phone to the subject.

Law enforcement took over the girl's accounts and found the messages. On the girl's phone, detectives found the two text messages sent to the girl including photographs of juvenile females; both images sent by the subject are child pornography.

Detectives continued communication with the subject pretending to be the girl. The subject threatened to share the photos the girl sent initially by posting them on the Internet, demanded more photos, and sent more child pornography photos. Detectives sent corrupt files through interstate commerce to the subject. The subject indicated he was having difficulty viewing those images and demanded the girl use a friend's cell phone to take more photographs.

The subject was finally identified as CASTINE of Mooresville, North Carolina. CASTINE continued to text and email the girl's accounts threatening to post the images unless she provided more.

On October 7, 2011, CASTINE emailed her three threatening emails, ending with "Your friends will get them if you don't send more. Now."

On October 10, CASTINE emailed the girl, saying "hey, now [name withheld] can see your pix. I will so you better send. I can show his friends too. send today." The message had four attachments which were four photographs apparently taken from the girl's Facebook page which had the girl and a young male giving the impression they were a couple.

On October 18, 2011, CASTINE was arrested in North Carolina and confessed.

While looking through the over 350,000 pictures of images that could possibly be child pornography in this case after the forensic examination, detectives found a picture of another Helena girl in CASTINE's Hotmail account. The girl was briefly interviewed and detailed the same scam that CASTINE used on the first victim. She was forensically interviewed in Helena, and repeated the same pattern of contact by CASTINE, harassment for naked photos of herself at age 15 in the same September-October 2011 time frame. The girl finally sent CASTINE a picture of herself naked and standing sideways.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that CASTINE will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, CASTINE does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Homeland Security Investigations, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, the Helena Police Department. and the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about PSC, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab "resources."

 

 

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