Raleigh Man Sentenced to More Than 21 Years for Manufacturing Child Pornography

RALEIGH – The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today in federal court, Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III sentenced ADAM GEOFFREY FRANKEL, 33, of Cary, North Carolina, to 295 months of imprisonment followed by ten years of supervised release for  production of multiple videos containing child pornography.

FRANKEL was named in a twelve-count Superseding Indictment on September 8, 2017.  On December 11, 2017, FRANKEL pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to manufacturing child pornography.

In October of 2014 Cary Police Department began an online investigation relating to the distribution and receipt of child pornography through file sharing programs. During the course of the investigation, FRANKEL was identified downloading and distributing child pornography from an IP address associated with his home.  A search warrant was issued for FRANKLE’s home and law enforcement seized multiple computers, external hard drives, cellular phones and media storage devices.  The forensic examination of the items collected contained multiple videos created by FRANKEL, he communicated with underage females and solicited them to perform sexual acts on video. The forensic examination also uncovered the defendant’s collection of child pornography of a least 136,350 images.

In addition to the prison sentence, FRANKEL agreed to the forfeiture of his residence located on Belrose Drive in Cary along with several pieces of computer equipment, all of which were used to commit the charged offense.

Mr. Higdon commented: “The twenty-one and a half year sentence imposed by the Court certainly matches the horrible nature of the crime in this case.  This defendant victimized several children with his production of pornography as well as his distribution and receipt of an incredible volume of pornography produced by others.  This sentence should be a warning to others engaged in this horrendous conduct – we will not tolerate the victimization of our children and we will seek lengthy sentences as punishment for this behavior and as a means of ensuring you cannot prey upon others.”

This case was part of the Project Safe Childhood initiative, a national program aimed at ensuring that criminals exploiting children are effectively prosecuted by making full use of all available law enforcement resources at every level.  For more information about this important national project, Project Safe Childhood, go to www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The Cary Police Department conducted the criminal investigation of this case.  Assistant United States Attorney Melissa Belle Kessler handled the prosecution of this case for the United States.