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Press Release

Former Preschool Teacher David Moe Sentenced To Federal Prison For Distribution Of Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado

DENVER – Former Paddington Station preschool teacher David Moe, age 46, of Denver, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez to serve 96 months in federal prison for distribution of child pornography, United States Attorney John Walsh and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Kumar Kibble announced.  Following his prison sentence, Judge Martinez ordered Moe to spend 10 years on supervised release.  Moe was also ordered to pay restitution of $5,000 each to three victims who filed requests with the court.  He will also be required to register as a sex offender.  Moe, who appeared at the sentencing hearing in custody, was remanded at the hearing’s conclusion.

According to court documents, including the stipulated facts contained in the plea agreement, on May 4, 2012, a detective with the Loveland Police Department, who is a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, while working in an undercover capacity, logged on to the Internet and accessed a peer-to-peer file sharing program.  The undercover detective attempted to download a digital file believed to contain child pornography from a remote host computer.  The detective was able to connect directly to the remote host computer and the requested file was placed in queue.  He remained in queue to receive the file until May 6, 2012, when the connection was terminated.  The detective was unable to complete the download.

Using investigative techniques, the detective was able to determine that the defendant was offering a child pornography file for distribution.  It was later determined that the Internet Protocol (IP) address offering the child pornography file for distribution resolved to Moe’s residence in Denver, Colorado.  A federal search warrant was obtained by HSI and was executed on July 24, 2012.  During the execution of the search warrant, items containing child pornography were seized, including two desktop computers, numerous external hard drives, and 383 CDs and DVDs.  All of the items seized by HSI belonged to the defendant.

During the execution of the warrant, agents learned from the defendant that he had been a teacher at Paddington Station preschool for the last 18 years.  At the time of the search warrant, Moe taught Cultural Rhythms/Enrichments (3 to 5 year olds) and had been the Director of Enrichments and Before and After School Care programs since 2005.

A forensic examination was conducted of the defendant’s computers, external hard drives, CDs and DVDs.  Evidence of distribution and receipt of child pornography was found on the defendant’s two computers and an external hard drive.  Evidence of child pornography possession was found on the defendant’s computers, external hard drives, and 383 CDs and DVDs.  At least 800,000 child pornography/erotica images and over 13,000 child pornography/erotica videos were located on the defendant’s computers and computer media, including the video that had been made available to the undercover detective in May 2012.

A forensic examination reflected that the child pornography possessed by the defendant was well organized and archived.  The examination revealed that the defendant possessed child pornography for at least 10 years.  Further, the examination revealed that the defendant distributed and received child pornography since at least 2007.  The defendant’s child pornography collection included pornographic depictions of children as young as toddlers.

As described in the plea agreement, a forensic examination was conducted on the defendant’s computers and computer media.  All images and videos of child pornography recovered during forensic examination were provided to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).   A thorough review of all of the images and videos possessed by the defendant reflected no evidence that the defendant himself created or produced child pornography.  Today he pled guilty to distributing existing child pornography.

“The conduct the defendant was sentenced for today is reprehensible,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh.  “Moe spent 10 years collecting nearly 2,000,000 images of children engaged in explicit sexual conduct, all the while working as a preschool teacher.  The U.S. Attorney's Office will continue to work with determination to protect children, and to combat the market for child pornography that Defendant Moe so extravagantly helped to fuel.”

“The predator’s market for sharing child pornography is built by people like David Moe who possessed more than a million explicit images of children being sexually abused,” said Kumar C. Kibble, special agent in charge of HSI Denver.  “Our HSI special agents routinely work with our law enforcement partners to remove these predators from civil society.”

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Moe was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney 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."

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Updated June 22, 2015