ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Federal and state law enforcement today highlighted their efforts to combat the dangers facing children, including child pornography, online enticement, and other forms of child sexual exploitation.

These efforts are part of Project Safe Childhood an ongoing 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 Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria works closely with the Northern Virginia/District of Columbia and the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces, two of 61 ICAC’s nationally and comprised of affiliate agencies from federal, state and local law enforcement.

Since August 2006, more than 287 individuals have been charged as part of Project Safe Childhood in the Eastern District of Virginia.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit ProjectSafeChildhood.gov. To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.

Recent cases throughout the Eastern District of Virginia include the following:

Production of Child Pornography

Kevin Garfield Ricks, of Federalsburg, Md., pled guilty on March 3, 2011 to six counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.  In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Ricks, a former school teacher in Manassas,  admitted to engaging in and taking photos and videos of illegal sexual contact with minor boys dating back more than three decades. On May 26, 2011, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Ian Hartney, of Newport News, Va., was indicted on May 20, 2011, for production, receipt and possession of child pornography.  According to the indictment, an arrest warrant was issued for Hartney after a computer repair person found child pornography on Hartney’s computer. A search warrant was executed on Hartney’s residence in Newport News and a number of computers and computer media were seized. Hartney was found to have homemade images of numerous different minor girls, some of whom have been identified by law enforcement.  ICE continues to try to identify other potential victims.

            Justin Bradley May, of Williamsburg, Va., was convicted of producing child pornography. An assistant professor of economics at the College of William & Mary, May requested a 13-year-old girl who expressed interest in modeling to to provide nude photographs of herself, which she sent to a fake persona May had created named “Nikki.” Her family members learned about this activity and went to the FBI. May was sentenced on Feb. 3, 2011, to 15 years in prison.

Rebecca Jean Nail, of Virginia Beach, Va., pled guilty to producing child pornography. Nail came to the attention of ICE agents investigating a man in Detroit, Mich., who had persuaded a number of women he met online to engage in sex acts with minors while the man in Detroit watched via a web camera. Nail admitted she participated in this activity on at least four separate occasions, and a forensic review of her computer found approximately 28 images she had produced with the minor, as well as archived instant message chats regarding the web camera sessions. She was sentenced on March 21, 2011, to 30 years in prison.

Scottie Lee Martinez, of Dumphries, Va., pled guilty on July 21, 2010, to producing child pornography and abusive sexual contact with a minor. Martinez admitted that in May 2009 he produced images depicting a 5-year-old minor and an 11-year-old minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Martinez also admitted that, sometime between May 2001 and June 2004, while he was at Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, he engaged in abusive sexual contact with a minor who was between the ages of 7- and 9-years-old.  On Jan. 18, 2011, he was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

 

Enticement

Alan Paul Strieper, of Virginia Beach, Va., pled guilty to planning to kidnap and rape a child as young as two years old. He was arrested when he arrived at the Norfolk airport to pick up an undercover agent posing as an accomplice.  Upon searching his vehicle after Strieper’s arrest, ICE agents found two rolls of duct tape, a pre-paid Tracfone, rubber gloves, sponges, bleach and other cleaning materials, several bottles of unknown pills, and a stuffed Elmo doll. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Sept. 7, 2010.

 

Receipt of Child Pornography

Justin Coleman, of Falls Church, Va., was arrested on April 7, 2011, for receipt of child pornography. A fourth grade Dual Language Teacher at John Adams Elementary School in Alexandria, Va., Coleman allegedly told ICE agents in an interview that he had been viewing and downloading pornography for a long time and preferred to view images and videos of young girls between 7 to 12 years old. During a search of his residence, Coleman allegedly provided agents with an external hard drive containing numerous videos and images containing child pornography.

James Richard Koegel, stationed at Fort Eustis, was convicted of multiple counts of receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography, as well as sexual abuse and possession of obscene visual representations of sexual abuse of children. An Army mechanic, Koegel was identified by Ft. Eustis military police when a six-year-old girl accused him of sexually abusing her while he was staying with her family. Based on information given to police by his wife, officers with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service seized Koegel’s computers and found more than 100 child pornography movies and more than 100,000 obscene Japanese anime cartoons depicting the sexual abuse of children. Koegel will be sentenced on Sept. 12, 2011.

            William Mills, of Mechanicsville, Va., pled guilty to receipt of child pornography. An FBI agent working undercover through the file-sharing program Limewire downloaded more than 50 files of child pornography from Mills’ IP address. Law enforcement seized his computer and found more than 675 images and 18 videos containing child pornography, along with sheets of paper depicting child pornography that were found in the Mills’ bedroom drawers and three images of child pornography found on his cell phone. Mills will be sentenced on June 2, 2011.

William H. Smith, of Hanover County, pled guilty to receipt of child pornography. National Park Service agents discovered more than 100 images and 39 video files of child pornography when they executed a search warrant at his residence. Smith was convicted in 2006 of months-long sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy in Hanover County. Smith was sentenced to 60 months in prison on May 16, 2011.

 

 

 

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