Big Island Man Indicted on Production of Child Pornography Charges

HONOLULU—A federal grand jury in Honolulu today returned an indictment charging John Ridgely Tucker, age 56, with six counts of producing child pornography. According to the indictment, Tucker used and enticed two minor children, who are identified only by initials, to produce six images of child pornography in 2008.

Florence T. Nakakuni, United States Attorney for the District of Hawaii, said according to an affidavit in support of the complaint against Tucker previously filed on October 11, 2012:

The FBI Honolulu Division initiated an investigation after receiving three images of child pornography from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children. The images depicted two minor children engaged in sexually explicit conduct and appeared to show a telephone book issued by Hawaiian Telephone Company for the Big Island of Hawaii.

In an unrelated case in Phoenix, Arizona, FBI agents recovered the same images, as well as an image of the two minors with an adult male. The picture of the male was forwarded to the FBI Honolulu Office, which put out a press release asking the public to identify him.

On October 10, 2012, the FBI received information that the person in the picture was Tucker.

The grand jury indictment contains six charges, each of which carries a minimum penalty of 15 years in jail, and up to 30 years of imprisonment, and a potential lifetime term of supervised release. The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and Tucker is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Tucker has been arrested and ordered detained without bail.

The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Honolulu Division, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Tong.