Charlotte Man Sentenced to More Than 11 Years in Prison for Possession and Transportation of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 22, 2013 |
CHARLOTTE, NC—A Charlotte man was sentenced to 135 months in prison today for possession and transportation of child pornography, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Robert Bove, 55, of Charlotte, was also ordered to serve 20 years under court supervision following his prison sentence and to register as a sex offender.
Joining U.S. Attorney Tompkins in making today’s announcement are John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, and Rodney D. Monroe of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD).
In April 2011, a federal criminal indictment charged Bove with one count of transportation and one count of possession of child pornography. According to filed court documents and today’s sentencing hearing, between September 2010 and February 2011, Bove transported and possessed videos and images depicting the sexual abuse of children. Bove pleaded guilty to the charges in September 2011.
According to information contained in court documents and yesterday’s sentencing hearing, in September 2010, Bove was chatting online using the screen name “luvsyourlittlegirl” with a sergeant of the Sturgeon Bay Police Department (SBPD) in Wisconsin who was posing as a 42-year-old female. Court records indicate that during the online exchange, Bove sent the undercover officer an image of child pornography. The Wisconsin detective was able determine that luvsyourlittlegirl had sent the image of child pornography from a residence in Charlotte, and he forwarded the investigative materials to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department. According to court records, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for the residence, where they encountered Robert Bove, who admitted to police that he was luvsyourlittlegirl and that there was child pornography on his home computer. Filed documents indicate that law enforcement seized the computer and other electronic evidence, and a computer forensic examiner discovered videos and images of child pornography on Bove’s computer and flash drive. Court records indicate that the images and videos Bove possessed depicted children as young as toddlers engaged in sexual acts with adults.
In determining Bove’s sentence, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. considered evidence presented at the sentencing hearing that Bove had been previously the subject of a child pornography investigation in Colorado. During that investigation, a detective in Colorado encountered Bove in a chatroom where child pornography videos were being broadcasted and viewed by members of the chatroom. Judge Conrad also considered chats between Bove and the undercover detective in Wisconsin, wherein Bove, posing as luvsyourlittlegirl, told the detective that he had seen child pornography videos in chat rooms five and six years ago and that it was “very exciting” and “very hot.”
Bove has been in local federal custody since April 2011. He will be transferred into the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. The case resulted from the collaborative efforts of the Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin Police Department; CMPD; and the FBI, all of which are members of their state Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.
In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Tompkins thanked the Sturgeon Bay Police Department for their assistance in this case.
The prosecution for the government of Bove was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimlani Ford of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.justice.gov/psc.