Monday, August 23, 2010

GREENEVILLE, Tenn.--JerryWayne Dunn, 38, of Mountain City, Tennessee was sentenced to 360 months in prison today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville. The sentence was the result of a guilty plea by Dunn on February 5, 2010, to a federal grand jury indictment charging him with kidnaping and with committing that offense on a minor after previously being convicted of a sex offense.

The indictment and subsequent conviction of Dunn was the result of an investigation conducted by the United States Marshals Service and the Johnson County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office. Dunn was convicted in 1997 in Johnson County Criminal Court for rape and served eight years in the Tennessee Department of Corrections. On August 28, 2005, he lured a teenaged boy with video games and took the teenager from Mountain City, Tennessee to Slidell, Louisiana, where they lived for more than three years. During that time, the victim was given a new name and deprived of formal education, medical care, and dental care. Dunn assumed an alias identity to conceal his real identity because he was wanted on state court warrants and for failure to register as a sex offender under Tennessee law. Dunn and his victim were featured on the national syndicated television show, “America’s Most Wanted”. They were recovered in December 2008, when he and his victim returned to Mountain City, Tennessee. In addition, the Court ordered him to remain on federal supervised release for the remainder of his life and to pay a $200 special assessment to the Court. Dunn has remained in custody since his arrest on December 5, 2008.

Gregg L. Sullivan, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, noted that “studies prove that a very high percentage of abducted children never return. Fortunately, Dunn’s victim has returned to his family. This investigation was brought as part of the continuing effort by the Department of Justice and the United States Marshals Service to implement the Adam Walsh Act, which was enacted in 2006. Our office will continue to pursue child predators with every law enforcement tool available.”

The United States was represented by Assistant United States Attorney Helen Smith.

This case was brought as part of Public Safe Childhood (PSC), a Department initiative launched in 2006 that aims to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information visit ProjectSafeChildhood.gov.