Missoula man sentenced to 12 years for child pornography crimes

MISSOULA—A Missoula man who admitted to multiple child pornography crimes was sentenced today to 12 years in prison, 10 years of supervised release and ordered to pay $3,000 restitution, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

Mark Allen McNeely, Sr., 51, pleaded guilty in June to a dozen counts, including distribution of child pornography, transportation of child pornography and receipt of child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided.

In court records filed in the case, the prosecution said that on Nov. 20, 2018, a Missoula Police detective and member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant on McNeely’s residence. An examination of a laptop seized in the search determined it had been used to search for, download and store images and videos of child pornography. The laptop also had been used to communicate with others in chatrooms on child pornography. The detective also obtained records from Skype and Facebook that were associated with accounts used by McNeely. Those records showed that McNeely distributed images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct on multiple dates.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cyndee Peterson prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Missoula Police Department, Bozeman Police Department and ICAC Task Force.

This case was initiated under the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative which was launched in 2006 to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children.  Through a network of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and advocacy organizations, Project Safe Childhood attempts to protect children by investigating and prosecuting offenders involved in child sexual exploitation.  It is implemented through partnerships including the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.  The ICAC Task Force Program was created to assist state and local law enforcement agencies by enhancing their investigative response to technology facilitated crimes against children.

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