Public School Assistant Principal Sentenced to 58 Months in Prison and 25 Years of Supervised Release for Child Pornography Offenses

Donald Paul Clippinger, 49, of Miami, was sentenced on July 14, 2017, to 58 months in prison and 25 years of supervised release, by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, after having pleaded guilty to three counts of accessing with intent to view child pornography. Clippinger was also ordered to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.

Benjamin G. Greenberg, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Mark Selby, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

According to court documents, ICE-HSI’s Miami Field Office received information from the agency’s Phoenix Field Office that Clippinger had accessed child pornography on three separate dates in November 2015, using a video conferencing software application. On January 31, 2017, agents with ICE-HSI’s Miami Field Office Miami, assisted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), executed a federal search warrant at Clippinger’s residence. Clippinger used the computer that law enforcement recovered from his residence to access and view child pornography through the video conferencing software.

the time of his arrest, Clippinger was an Assistant Principal at the Fienberg-Fisher K-8 Center, a Miami-Dade County public school.

Mr. Greenberg commended the investigative efforts of ICE-HSI’s Miami and Phoenix Field Offices. Mr. Greenberg also thanked FDLE for their assistance with this matter. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Cervantes.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. 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 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.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.