Texas Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Transporting Child Pornography

Contact: Craig M. Wolff
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Steven Sawyer, 37, of Splendora, Texas, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge Jon D. Levy to 14 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release for transporting child pornography. Sawyer pleaded guilty to the charge on March 25, 2015.

According to court records, in October 2014, Sawyer, who was in Texas, sent an email message to the undercover email account of a Special Agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Maine. Attached to the email was a video file depicting a young girl engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

The investigation was conducted by HSI. The 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 U.S. 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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.