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Department of Justice Releases First National Strategy to Combat Child Exploitation
U.S. Marshals Service to Launch Nationwide Operation Targeting Top 500 Most Dangerous, Non-Compliant Sex Offenders

U.S. Attorney’s Office August 02, 2010
  • Southern District of Georgia (912) 652-4422

SAVANNAH, GA—Following an announcement today by Attorney General Eric Holder, United States Attorney Edward J. Tarver announced that the Department of Justice released its first ever National Strategy to Combat Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. The strategy builds upon the department’s accomplishments in combating child exploitation by establishing specific, aggressive goals and priorities and increasing cooperation and collaboration at all levels of government and the private sector.

As part of the overall strategy, the U.S. Marshals Service is launching a nationwide operation targeting the top 500 most dangerous, non-compliant sex offenders in the nation. Additionally, the department will create a national database to allow federal, state, tribal, local, and international law enforcement partners to deconflict their cases with each other, engage in undercover operations from a portal facilitated or hosted by the database, share information and intelligence, and conduct analysis on dangerous offenders and future threats and trends. The department also created 38 additional Assistant U.S. Attorney positions to devote to child exploitation cases and over the coming months will work to fill the vacancies and train the new assistants in this specialized area.

“Although we’ve made meaningful progress in protecting children across the country—in rural areas, inner cities, tribal communities, and online—and although we’ve brought a record number of offenders to justice in recent years, it is time to renew our commitment to this work,” said Attorney General Holder. “Congress has rightly called for such an approach—and for more aggressive enforcement of laws aimed at safeguarding our children and preventing, stopping, and punishing child exploitation crimes. The Justice Department is fully committed to answering this call.”

United States Attorney Tarver stated, “The National Strategy’s threat assessment makes clear that child exploitation, often over the internet, has reached epidemic proportions. This disturbing development demands we act with the full force of the department and its many law enforcement partners. We will settle for nothing less than reducing incidents of child exploitation and bringing justice to those who would steal the innocence of our nation’s children.”

The strategy first analyzed the threat to our nation’s children and described the current efforts at all levels of the government against this threat. Since FY 2006, the Department of Justice has filed 8,464 Project Safe Childhood (PSC) cases against 8,637 defendants. These cases include prosecutions of online enticement of children to engage in sexual activity, interstate transportation of children to engage in sexual activity, production, distribution, and possession of child pornography, and other offenses.

In the Southern District of Georgia, 50 defendants have been charged under the Project Safe Childhood initiative since 2006. Examples of these prosecutions include:

United States vs. James W. Brown

In May 2009, James W. Brown of Savannah, Georgia was sentenced to over 24 years' imprisonment for his conviction for possession and receipt of child pornography. The court also imposed a lifetime term of supervised release following Brown’s period of incarceration. The evidence showed that Brown, age 27, possessed on his computer at least 380 images and 18 videos depicting children being sexually raped and abused. Additionally, the evidence showed that Brown traded these images with others via the Internet. The case was the result of a joint investigation with the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

United States vs. Roger Alan Gambrel

In December 2009, Roger Alan Gambrel, who was convicted on June 5, 2009 of the federal offense of Receipt of Child Pornography, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, followed by supervised release for the remainder of his life. Gambrel will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from federal prison. The evidence showed that Gambrel routinely engaged in sexually suggestive online “chats” with others about the child pornography images being traded during those communications. Gambrel possessed over 2,000 child pornography images on his computer. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, based upon information they received from FBI agents in California.

United States vs. Jeremy James Williams

In January 2010, Jeremy James Williams, of Grovetown, Georgia, who was convicted on September 4, 2009 of the federal offense of receipt of child pornography, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, followed by supervised release for the remainder of his life. Williams is also required to register as a sex offender upon his release from federal prison. The evidence showed that Williams, age 28, routinely engaged in sexually suggestive online “chats” with girls he believed to be 13 years old, and accessed child pornography through file-sharing networks over 500 times. The case was initiated when the parent of a child who was solicited over the Internet reported the activity to law enforcement officers. The joint investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

United States vs. Robert Francis Kwasniak

In May 2010, Robert Francis Kwasniak, 38, of Augusta, Georgia, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of interstate traveling to engage in illicit sex with a minor; producing child pornography; receiving child pornography and possessing child pornography. The indictment arose out of a joint investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The indictment alleges Kwasniak traveled to North Carolina to engage in sexual acts with a 15-year-old girl. This case remains pending. Tarver emphasized that an indictment is only an accusation and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the Government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Despite vigorously fighting all aspects of child exploitation, the department recognized that more work remains to be done. To that end, the department’s strategy lays out goals to increase coordination among the nation’s investigators, better train investigators and prosecutors, advance law enforcement’s technological capabilities, and enhance research to inform decisions on deterrence, incarceration, and monitoring. The strategy also includes a renewed commitment to public awareness and community outreach.

As part of its public outreach efforts, the department today re-launched ProjectSafeChildhood.gov, the Project Safe Childhood (PSC) public website. PSC is a department initiative launched in 2006 that aims to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal, 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 additional information, please contact First Assistant United States Attorney James D. Durham at (912) 201-2547.

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