River Oaks Man Admits to Felony Child Pornography Charges

FORT WORTH, Texas — Timothy Paul Malone, 39, of River Oaks, Texas, appeared this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton and pleaded guilty to three child pornography counts, announced John Parker, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Malone pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children. Malone faces a maximum term of imprisonment of not less than 15 years and not more than 90 years, a total of $750,000 in fines and up to a lifetime of supervised release. Malone has been in custody since the time of indictment in September 2017.  He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 5, 2018.

According to documents filed in the case, Malone persuaded and enticed two minor children in Watauga and Haslet, Texas to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a video. Malone also attempted to use another minor child to create a video of the minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

In January 2017, law enforcement conducted a search warrant, according to plea documents, at Malone’s residence and seized a number of electronic devices. An examination of the devices revealed a number of child pornography videos and images including those of the minors previously mentioned.

The matter was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

River Oaks Police Department, Tarrant County District Attorney’s Digital Forensics Unit, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem is in charge of the prosecution.

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