United States Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña
Northern District of Texas

MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2011
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

ENNIS, TEXAS, WOMAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN 10 YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR ALLOWING HER HUSBAND TO
TAKE PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGES OF HER MINOR DAUGHTER

DALLAS — Former Ennis, Texas, resident, Sharon Lee Anderson, 38, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 121 months in federal prison, following her guilty plea in April 2011 to one count of permitting the production of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas. Sharon Anderson, and her husband, Buddy Anderson, 39, were arrested on March 24, 2011, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents on charges outlined in a federal criminal complaint. Law enforcement located the Andersons at a homeless shelter in Las Vegas where they had absconded after leaving their apartment in Ennis.

Buddy Anderson pleaded guilty in May 2011 to two federal child pornography/obscenity offenses and was sentenced last month to 30 years in federal prison

According to documents filed with the Court, between May 1999 and December 11, 2003, Sharon Anderson knowingly permitted her husband, Buddy Anderson, to take sexually explicit photographs of her minor daughter. She further admitted that her daughter was between four and eight-years-old when the photographs were taken and that her husband used the photos later for his sexual arousal.

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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov

ICE HSI and the Ennis Police Department investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Camille Sparks and Lisa J. Miller prosecuted.

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