Grand Prairie Man Sentenced to Nearly 19 Years in Federal Prison Without Parole on Child Pornography Convictions

DALLAS, TX—Bruce J. Dellere, 48, of Grand Prairie, Texas, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 224 months (nearly 19 years) in prison, following his guilty pleas to two child pornography offenses, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. He was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and register as a sex offender. Dellere pleaded guilty in November 2009 to an information charging one count of transporting and shipping child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. He was remanded into federal custody following the pleas.

According to documents filed in the case, Dellere admitted that on July 17, 2006, he used an instant messaging software (ICQ) to initiate contact with another ICQ user in Australia. The same day, Dellere admitted that he continued his chat with this individual, “Dave,” via MSN chat using “The Stingray” as his username. As “The Stingray,” Dellere admitted that he knowingly and intentionally sent images of child pornography from his computer at his residence to “Dave” in Australia. Dellere also admitted that in addition to his chat with “Dave,” he was involved in numerous other chats over the Internet, using Google Hello software and Yahoo Messenger, to distribute hundreds of images of child pornography in exchange for other images of child pornography. At today’s sentencing hearing, it was revealed that in many of the chats, Dellere purported to have molested young children.

Even though Dellere ran a “defragmenter” program to overwrite files on his computer when law enforcement officers showed up at his home in 2007, they still located his collection of hundreds of images of child pornography. Dellere admitted that he possessed child pornography images involving prepubescent minors, and that he possessed sadistic, masochistic, or other violent images involving minors.

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

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa J. Miller.