United States Attorney James T. Jacks
Northern District of Texas

FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2010
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

DALLAS MAN ADMITS POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY-
FACES 20 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON

Law Enforcement Recovered Defendant’s Computer,
Containing Child Pornography, at Area Pawn Shop

DALLAS — Dustin Mishler, 29, of Dallas, pleaded guilty this morning before Chief U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater to one count of possessing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Mishler admits in the plea documents that he has a 2006 conviction in Dallas County for possession of child pornography. Because of this criminal history, Mishler, who is in custody, faces a maximum statutory sentence of not less than 10 or more than 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Fitzwater on September 10, 2010.

Mishler freely admitted that he possessed images and videos of actual prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit acts and that some of the images and videos depicted sadistic and/or masochistic acts.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children advised the Dallas Police Department (DPD) that they had received a cyber tip from AOL concerning an AOL subscriber who had transmitted child pornography over the AOL Internet service network on May 10, 2009. The investigation revealed that the subscriber was Mishler. The DPD obtained a search warrant and executed it at Mishler’s residence on June 23, 2009. Mishler was not present, but his girlfriend and roommate indicated that Mishler had a computer, but had sold it a few weeks earlier to a pawn shop. Law enforcement seized a USB drive, paperwork, seven CDs and one DVD from the residence.

Law enforcement located Mishler’s pawned laptop computer at Cash America, just a few blocks from his residence, on June 3, 2009. A search warrant for the computer was obtained and a forensic examination, conducted by the North Texas Regional Computer Lab (NTRCFL), revealed that Mishler’s computer and USB drive contained three videos and 64 images of child pornography. The forensic exam also determined that Mishler had used Yahoo! Messenger to send images of child pornography.

1 This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state 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 about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov/

The case is being investigated by the DPD Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks is in charge of the prosecution.

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