Married Couple Arrested for Producing Child Pornography

RAPID CITY - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced that a Federal Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrants were returned on a Vale, South Dakota, husband and wife charging Production of Child Pornography.

Timothy Scott White, age 42, and Leslie Marie White, age 24, were arrested on the Complaint on December 19, 2022. They appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daneta Wollmann on December 21, 2022, and pleaded not guilty.

If convicted of the charge, the defendants each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison, up to a maximum possible penalty of 30 years in federal prison and/or a $250,000 fine, a lifetime term of supervised release, and a $100 assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Restitution may also be ordered.

The Whites were arrested pursuant to an ongoing investigation involving online child pornography production and distribution. The charge relates to the Whites, being the parents of a minor, permitting or encouraging the minor to engage in or assist another person in engaging in sexually explicit conduct, for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct. The visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct were then transmitted over the Internet. The conduct is alleged to have occurred between February 1, 2022, and December 19, 2022.

Timothy White was employed by the Spearfish Emergency Ambulance Service and the Piedmont Fire Department.

The charge is merely an accusation and the Whites are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. 

The investigation is being conducted as part of a joint effort between the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Sazama is prosecuting the case. 

The Whites were remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending trial. A trial date has been set for February 28, 2023.