Osceola Woman Sentenced to 30 Years for Production of Child Pornography

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Andrea Marie Mast, 32, of Evart, Michigan, was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison for producing images of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced today. The Honorable Janet T. Neff, U.S. District Judge, presided over the sentencing and also ordered Mast to pay $6,780 in restitution. Upon release, Mast will serve the rest of her life on supervised release.

In imposing the sentence, Judge Neff expressed dismay, “I’m almost at a loss for words—our kids look to us for safety.” Judge Neff stated, “There is no excuse,” and added, “As a society we have a responsibility to protect our children.”

The case began on December 28, 2010, when police in Evart, Michigan, and child protective services discovered that Andrea Mast had taken sexually explicit pictures of a 7-year-old female and sent the pictures to Timothy Sims via e-mail in November 2010. The sexual abuse also entailed Mast performing a sex act with Sims while the 7-year-old was present. Mast was immediately arrested that day and has since remained in custody. The authorities discovered that Mast offered to allow Sims to sexually molest the 7-year-old if he paid her cell phone bill, and that, in 2006, Mast had previously taken sexually explicit pictures of the 7-year-old. On May 6, 2011, Mast was convicted in Oseola County and sentenced to serve seven years and 11 months to 20 years in prison for the conduct in 2006. On September 23, 2011, Mast pleaded guilty to the federal charges relating to her producing sexually explicit images in November of 2010. Her 30-year federal sentence will run concurrently with the state sentence.

On October 21, 2011, Sims pleaded guilty to receiving and possessing the illegal pictures of the 7-year-old. Charges against Sims for attempting to produce more child pornography images of another victim are still pending.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, county prosecutor’s offices, an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, federal, state, and local law enforcement are working closely together to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children. The partners in Project Safe Childhood work to educate local communities about the dangers of online child exploitation, and to teach children how to protect themselves. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit the following website: www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The investigation of this matter was conducted by the Evart Police Department, Mecosta County Sheriff’s Department, Big Rapids Police Department, MSP-Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, and the FBI. Prosecution of this case was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Mekaru.