PREVIOUSLY CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER FROM ALBUQUERQUE SENTENCED TO 330 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR MAKING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

ALBUQUERQUE – James Highfield, 64, of Albuquerque, N.M., was sentenced in federal court on June 4, 2019, to 330 months in prison on six counts of production of visual depictions of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. 

Highfield previously pleaded guilty to these offenses on February 22, 2019.  In his plea agreement, he admitted using his cellular telephone to take sexually explicit photographs of three children less than 18 years old from September 22, 2017, to October 15, 2017.  Highfield committed these offenses although he was required to register as a sex offender based on prior convictions for other sexual offenses.   

Homeland Security Investigations and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office investigated this case with the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Mease prosecuted the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s 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 exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  For information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

The case also was brought as a part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force’s mission, which is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico.  There are 86 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies associated with the New Mexico ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office.  Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.