Meridian Man Pleads Guilty to Access with Intent to View Child Pornography

BOISE –  Josiah Paul Yeasley, 27, of Meridian pleaded guilty on August 10, 2016, in United States District Court to access with intent to view child pornography, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.   

According to the plea agreement, an investigative lead provided by the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement indicated suspected child exploitation violations associated with Yeasley’s email account.  On May 20, 2015, agents with the Department of Homeland Security, with assistance from the Meridian Police Department, contacted Yeasley at his residence in Meridian, Idaho.  Agents with the Department of Homeland Security conducted a consensual forensic examination of the desktop computer used by Yeasley, and recovered subject lines from Yeasley’s email account that were indicative of child pornography as well as image files containing child pornography that Yeasley had saved.  Based on this information, agents with the Department of Homeland Security executed a search warrant at Yeasley’s residence on July 23, 2015, seizing a laptop computer.  A forensic examination of the laptop computer revealed that Yeasley had used his accounts on the laptop computer to view images containing child pornography on the internet, and had saved a video containing child pornography.  In total, agents with the Department of Homeland Security recovered 217 images containing child pornography from the desktop and laptop computers.  In the plea agreement, Yeasley admitted accessing with intent to view child pornography on the desktop and laptop computers. 

Sentencing is set for November 1, 2016, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.

Access with intent to view child pornography is punishable by up to 20 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, a term of supervised release of not less than five years and up to life.  As part of his plea, Yeasley also agreed to forfeit the desktop and laptop computers used in the commission of the charged offense.

The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Meridian Police Department, and 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.”