Lubbock Man Sentenced to 135 Months in Federal Prison for Downloading Child Pornography from the Internet

LUBBOCK, TX—Richard Mendoza, 22, of Lubbock, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 135 months in federal prison and a 15-year term of supervised release following his guilty plea in October 2012 to one count of receipt of child pornography. He has been in custody since his arrest in August 2012. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, in January 2012, while searching on the Internet for videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, Mendoza intentionally and knowingly downloaded a digital video file depicting a female child, under the age of 18, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

This matter 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, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “Resources.”

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy.