United States Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña
Northern District of Texas

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2011
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

COPPELL, TEXAS, MAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN 17 YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON ON FEDERAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CONVICTION

DALLAS — Gary Mack Johnson, 54, of Coppell, Texas, who pleaded guilty in April 2011 to one count of transporting and shipping child pornography, was sentenced yesterday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 210 months in federal prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas. Following the sentencing hearing, Judge Boyle remanded Johnson to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to documents filed in the case and testimony at the sentencing hearing yesterday, Johnson’s arrest was the result of two simultaneous investigations by separate law enforcement agencies including the Dallas Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC), the Utah Attorney General’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The investigation revealed that Johnson had chatted about molesting children and distributed child pornography using many different methods on the Internet including AOL, Yahoo! Messenger and a website called Free6.com

Dallas ICAC received information from the Utah Attorney General’s Office in May 2010 about an undercover officer who had been chatting with Johnson since March 2008. The officer pretended to be a 32-year-old female with a 12-year-old daughter. Johnson encouraged the undercover officer to molest her daughter and put her daughter on the webcam so he could expose himself to her.

ICE HSI agents became aware of Johnson in 2010. Johnson was using a website called Free6.com which allowed users to chat in different chat rooms where they could hold conversations and post messages, photographs and graphics. During one week, Johnson distributed child pornography to at least 20 different users. He also engaged in conversations in which he encouraged others to molest their children and indicated his desire to molest the children himself.

A special agent with ICE HSI testified that forensic analysis revealed that Johnson had child pornography on his cell phone and his home computer and that he had been collecting and distributing child pornography since at least 2005. The analysis also revealed that, dating back to 2004, Johnson had saved other lengthy chat logs from Yahoo! Messenger revealing a pervasive interest in sexually assaulting children and encouraging others to abuse their own children. The special agent also testified that several of the images and videos were of the rape of prepubescent children and that some of the images involved bondage and the violent rape of children.

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

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks.

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