United States Attorney James T. Jacks
Northern District of Texas

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2011
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

ARLINGTON MAN SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON
FOR POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

FORT WORTH, Texas — Thurman J. Kitchen, 40, of Arlington, Texas, who pleaded guilty in October 2010 to one count of possessing child pornography, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to 15 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Noting Kitchen’s prior child pornography conviction, Judge McBryde upwardly departed from the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Kitchen has been in custody since his arrest in September 2010.

According to documents filed in the case, in June 2010, officers with the Arlington Police Department visited the Kitchen residence based on a lead from an individual who had purchased a computer from Kitchen. Images of child pornography were found on that computer. Agents examined Kitchen’s computer and related storage media and discovered child pornography that Kitchen admitted downloading from the Internet. Kitchen was convicted in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in 1999 for possession of child pornography.

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 United States 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 investigated by the Arlington Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex C. Lewis was in charge of the prosecution.

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