Alabama Man Arrested On Production of Child Pornography Charges

WASHINGTON – A 54-year-old Muscle Shoals, Alabama resident was arrested on September 27, on a federal criminal complaint charging him with producing child pornography, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town of the Northern District of Alabama.

According to the complaint affidavit, between Aug. 1, 1997, and Oct. 15, 1998, Charles Mark McCormack used a minor, born in or about 1992, to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography, by surreptitiously videotaping the minor urinating in a bathroom in his residence.  

The charges contained in the complaint are only allegations.  The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations is investigating this case with the cooperation of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.  Trial Attorney William M. Grady of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel J. Fortune of the Northern District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.

This investigation is a 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 CEOS, 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.