Virginia Music Volunteer Sentenced to 300 Months in Prison for Production of Child Pornography

A Virginia man who served as a volunteer with the music program at Grace E. Metz Middle School in Manassas, Virginia, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for production of child pornography, attempted coercion and enticement of a minor, and distribution and receipt of child pornography.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia, Special Agent in Charge Clark E. Settles of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., and Chief Douglas Keen of the Manassas City Police Department made the announcement.

David Alexander Battle II, 24, of Manassas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton of the Eastern District of Virginia, who also ordered Battle to serve 15 years of supervised release.  Battle was convicted by a federal jury on March 10, 2016.

According to evidence presented at trial, Battle used his home computer to share images of child sexual exploitation via webcam on a chat website in April 2015.  Battle also posed as a minor girl on another chat platform and chatted with minor boys, including two boys he personally knew, coercing and enticing them to send him sexually explicit images of themselves.  The trial evidence also showed Battle’s laptop contained gigabytes of child sexual exploitation files. 

HSI and the Manassas City Police Department investigated the case, with assistance from the Herndon, Virginia, Police Department and the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.  Trial Attorney Lauren Britsch of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Prabhu of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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.justice.gov/psc.