Press Release
Crete Resident Sentenced for Receiving Child Pornography
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nebraska
United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Anthony Edward Jones, 30, formerly of Crete, Nebraska, was sentenced on January 23, 2015, in Lincoln, Nebraska, to 90 months in prison by United States District Judge John M. Gerrard, for receiving child pornography. Jones was also ordered to pay $750 in restitution and complete a five-year term of supervised release after serving his prison sentence. Jones will also be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.
On July 19, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security in Omaha, Nebraska, received a referral from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office in Phoenix, Arizona, relating to an investigation involving the possession and distribution of child pornography. HSI in Phoenix had information that another individual was logging into a Russian file sharing website and was making sexually suggestive comments on posted images of prepubescent girls. After serving a search warrant in Mesa, Arizona, agents discovered that this user’s account was on several mailing lists which focused on the trading and distribution of child pornography. Agents discovered over two-hundred e-mails that were receiving child pornography; one such e-mail was from Anthony Jones.
An HSI summons was subsequently issued to Google, who is the host provider for Jones’ e-mail account. Additional information identified the account was being accessed from an IP address assigned to Time Warner Cable who confirmed that the IP address was assigned to the residence of Anthony Jones.
On July 30, 2013, an HSI special agent along with a police officer with the Crete Police Department met with Anthony Jones, who allowed his computer to be reviewed by a forensic agent for any evidence of child pornography. A forensic investigation revealed 50 videos and 800 images of child porn on the computer, including images of prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
This 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 the United States 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 individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc for more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Crete Police Department.
Updated February 10, 2015
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