Yakima Man Sentenced to 300 Months Imprisonment and Lifetime Supervised Release for Production and Attempted Production of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography

Yakima, Washington –  Vanessa R. Waldref, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that Miguel Urbina, age 38 of Yakima, Washington was sentenced after pleading guilty to two counts of Production and Attempted Production of Child Pornography and one count of Possession of Child Pornography. United States District Judge Mary K. Dimke imposed a sentence of 300 months imprisonment to be followed by a life term of supervised release. Urbina will also be required to register as a sex offender.

According to Court documents, Urbina and another person produced child pornography in February 2007, by surreptitiously making an audio/video recording with a digital video camera concealed in a woman’s purse that was placed inside a bathroom in the Union Gap Mall. This camera captured explicit images and video of minor children using the bathroom. These images and videos were saved to Urbina’s computer hard drive. Then, between November 2008 and November 2009, Urbina, produced and attempted to produce child pornography with an individual who was under the age of eighteen.

On April 23, 2020, FBI agents executed a federal search warrant on Urbina’s residence in Yakima, Washington and seized a hard drive containing thousands of images of child pornography. The search warrant also recovered the audio/video recording from the device that was placed inside the bathroom at the Union Gap Mall as well as the explicit recordings Urbina made in 2008 and 2009.

“Mr. Urbina’s exploitation of minor children spanned two decades, warranting the strict sentence the Court imposed today,” stated U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref. “Mr. Urbina surreptitiously recorded unsuspecting children and preserved those materials for his own gratification. Later, he exploited another child, making sexually explicit recordings of that child. I am grateful for the FBI’s intervention and for the incredible efforts of investigators and prosecutors, who devote their careers to keeping children in Eastern Washington safe from those who would prey on the most vulnerable members of our community.”    

“As a parent and as a law enforcement officer, I am horrified at Mr. Urbina’s blatant pattern of exploiting and victimizing children,” said Richard A. Collodi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “His crimes, which dated back for years, included the use of a concealed camera to produce and store thousands of child sexual abuse images. The digital images child predators create are as lasting as the harm they cause, and we continue to fight with the hope that the consequences will deter a future offender.”

This case was pursued as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the United States 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. The Project Safe Childhood Initiative (“PSC”) has five major components:

• Integrated federal, state, and local efforts to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases, and to identify and rescue children;
• Participation of PSC partners in coordinated national initiatives;
• Increased federal enforcement in child pornography and enticement cases;
• Training of federal, state, and local law enforcement agents; and
• Community awareness and educational programs.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Michael Murphy, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.

1:20-CR-2049-MKD