Two Men Plead Guilty To Child Pornography Offenses

United States Attorney R. Trent Shores announced today that two men pled guilty to child pornography offenses in the Northern District of Oklahoma. Both men used the internet to search for and find material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

“The child victims in these cases are victimized over and over again because the images remain on the internet and in circulation. Sexual deviants who prey on children by seeking out child pornography will be aggressively prosecuted by my office. I am proud to partner with our law enforcement partners to stop child exploitation. The investigators in these cases did excellent work to make our community safer,” said United States Attorney Shores.

On May 8, 2018, Jeffrey Townsend, age 51, plead guilty to accessing with intent to view child pornography before Judge John E. Dowdell.  Townsend admitted that on December 2, 2015, he knowingly accessed with intent to view, and attempted to view videos of child pornography as defined by federal law by accessing a video conferencing room that contained child pornography. He knew child pornography would likely be available in the video conferencing website.  He accessed the website using the Internet and his computer. Townsend and the government stipulated in his plea agreement that his sentence should be between 30-37 months in federal prison. Any length of supervised release following prison, and the amount of any fine or restitution is left to the Court’s discretion.  Sentencing is set for August 8, 2018. His case was investigated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and the Tulsa Police Department.

On May 9, 2018, Scott Frederick Arterbury, age 32, plead guilty to possession of child pornography before Judge Claire V. Eagan.  Arterbury admitted that he knowingly possessed images and videos of child pornography that he had downloaded from the Internet to his computer.  According to the government, his collection of child pornography included images and videos of prepubescent minors or minors who had not reached the age of 12 years old.  The case was a result of a search warrant executed at the defendant’s residence on November 10, 2015. The defendant obtained at least some of the child pornography from a child pornography website located on the so-called Dark Web.  Defendant’s plea agreement allows him to appeal certain pretrial rulings made by Judge Eagan.  Sentencing is set for August 7, 2018.  Arterbury’s case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Broken Arrow Police Department.

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 United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.