Denver Man Sentenced To 100 Years In Federal Prison For Advertising Child Pornography And Other Child Pornography Related Crimes

DENVER – Richard Franklin, a.k.a “westfaliaimplant”, age 45 of Denver, Colorado, was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Wiley Y. Daniel to serve 1200 months (100 years) in federal prison for advertising child pornography, receipt of child pornography, two counts of distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.  Today’s sentence, one of the longest child pornography sentences in Colorado history, essentially means the defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison.  Judge Daniel also ordered Franklin to serve a lifetime of supervised release.  The defendant, who appeared at the hearing in custody, was remanded. 

Franklin was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on June 8, 2011.  He was found guilty on August 27, 2013, following a seven-day jury trial.  He was sentenced today, November 26, 2013. 

According to court documents, as well as facts presented at trial, from May 11, 2009 and January 5, 2011, Franklin knowingly made, printed or published any notice or advertisement offering to receive, exchange or distribute child pornography to anyone who was a member of his online trading circle.  Further, the defendant knowingly received and distributed child pornography using the Internet.  Lastly, Franklin knowingly possessed images of child pornography.

In total, the defendant possessed multiple hard drives containing over 200,000 images of child pornography.  Franklin used a file trading software to allow others to preview and browse his collection and to chat with fellow child pornography traders.  Part of the trading of images was to encourage purveyors to produce new child pornography videos.  As a result of this investigation, two young children, both under 12 years old, were rescued from their abusers.

When imposing sentence, the Court stated that the crimes of the defendant were “pernicious and evil” and “must be dealt with in the most severe way.”

“The Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood continues to work aggressively to protect children from those who would exploit them,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh.  “In cases such as this, we work diligently to punish those who provide these horrible images, with the goal of reducing both the availability and demand.”

“The FBI will continue to aggressively pursue those who prey on children, especially those who advertise, trade and/or produce child pornography,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle.  “Crimes of this nature threatened to destroy our most precious resource, offend every sensibility, and cannot be tolerated.  The FBI and our partners will spare no expense or resource to bring them to justice.”

This case was investigate by the Denver and Phoenix Field Offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Franklin was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Judith Smith and Alecia Riewerts Wolak.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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 the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about PSC, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab "resources."

####