San Francisco Man Sentenced for Distribution of Child Pornography

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that GEOFFREY WALKER, age 66, of San Francisco, was sentenced today for crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children.

U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan sentenced WALKER to 72 months imprisonment followed by 10 years of federal supervised release as a result of his guilty plea on May 7, 2015, to distribution of materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors.  In addition, WALKER is required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

According to court documents, as a result of an undercover operation by federal law enforcement agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) into the sexual exploitation of children and the distribution of child pornography in the Eastern District of Louisiana, it was determined that WALKER was utilizing his email account to distribute child pornography from California to Louisiana.  On September 5, 2014, a federal search warrant was executed at WALKER’s residence in California and HSI agents seized his computer pursuant to the search warrant.  WALKER was taken into federal custody at the time of the execution of the search warrant.  HSI agents established that on eleven different occasions, WALKER emailed sexually explicit images of minors to an undercover HSI agent located in New Orleans, Louisiana.  A subsequent computer forensic search of WALKER’s computer by HSI yielded over 9,000 images and over 1,000 videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit activity.   

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 the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood 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 Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite, Jr. praised the work of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, HSI in investigating this matter.  Project Safe Childhood Coordinator and Fraud Section Chief, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian M. Klebba was in charge of the prosecution.