Boothbay Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing Child Pornography

PORTLAND, Maine: A Boothbay man pleaded guilty today in federal court to distributing child pornography, Acting U.S. Attorney Donald E. Clark announced.

According to court records, on October 8, 2019, Joseph Pinkham, 35, sent several text messages to an individual in Texas containing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The individual in Texas reported the conduct to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators identified the sender as Pinkham and obtained a search warrant for his residence in Boothbay. In an interview with investigators, Pinkham acknowledged sending sexually explicit images of minors to the individual in Texas.

Pinkham faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 40 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to life. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, the Dallas (Texas) Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.