Former louisiana sheriff’s office employee sentenced to 39 months in prison for distributing child pornography
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
September 13, 2011 |
Defendant Traded Criminal Images With New Jersey Resident Who Visited Child Brothel in Thailand
NEWARK, N.J. – Roger Elkins was sentenced today to 39 months in prison for trading images of sexually abused children with a convicted producer of child pornography involving abused young boys in Thailand, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Elkins, 45, of Bossier City, La., previously pleaded guilty to one count of an Indictment against him, which charged him with distribution and receipt of child pornography. He entered his guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz, and was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Faith S. Hochberg in Newark federal court.
U.S. Attorney Fishman stated: “Elkins admitted that he traded images of violated children with a man who considered their brutalization a vacation pastime. The fact that Elkins’ crimes are connected to a known international child exploitation ring makes it impossible to ignore what child pornography really is: a permanent record of the rape and abuse of innocent children.”
According to documents filed in this and related cases and statements made in court:
Elkins, who was employed by the DeSoto Parish, La., Sheriff’s Office until his arrest in this case, admitted that he exchanged instant messages with New Jersey resident Wayne Nelson Corliss, 61, of Union City, N.J., from approximately April 2002 through April 2003. These messages included sexually explicit comments and discussions between the two, in which they shared mutual admiration of certain images and videos of child pornography. The messages also indicated that the two routinely traded, exchanged, and trafficked in these images and videos, including images of sadistic or masochistic conduct. The chat logs of the instant messages revealed that Elkins sent graphic images of child pornography to Corliss, and that Elkins received graphic images and videos of child pornography from Corliss in return.
Corliss had traveled to Thailand to engage in illegal sexual acts with minor boys. There, he visited the brothel run by John Wrenshall, 65, a Canadian citizen who arranged trips to his home in Thailand during which U.S. citizens and others paid him to engage in anal sex, oral sex, and other sexual acts with Thai boys – some as young as four years old. Corliss was sentenced on Nov. 16, 2009, by U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr., to 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release. Wrenshall was sentenced on Jan. 31, 2011., by U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh to 25 years in prison.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Hochberg sentenced Elkins to three years of supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Andrew M. McLees, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.
This government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Mendelsohn of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
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Defense counsel: Henry Klingeman Esq.; Anna Cominsky Esq., Newark
