Houston Man Convicted of Producing and Advertising Child Pornography

HOUSTON—Edward Jorodge Gladney, 27, has entered a plea of guilty for producing and advertising child pornography, United States Attorney Ken Magidson announced today.

Gladney was indicted in October 2010 and charged with producing child pornography as far back as 2002 as well as advertising those images for sale via the Internet. Today, he entered a plea of guilty before U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore.

The case was initiated following an anonymous tip to crime stoppers advising of an adult male being indecent with young boys. The investigation revealed he manipulated four boys for the purposes of capturing their images and then advertising those images for sale on the Internet. The exploitation continued for years and allowed Gladney to create thousands of images and hundreds of videos of young children which were disseminated via the Internet. The images and videos included graphic depictions of boys in provocative positions and boys and adults engaging in oral and anal sex. Additionally, Gladney had collected thousands of images and videos containing children other than his personal victims, one of the which included a forcible sexual assault of a young boy in which the screams of the child can be heard.

Gladney has remained in custody since his transfer from the Harris County Jail, where he was held on related state charges. He will remain in custody until he is sentenced on July 2, 2012. At that time, he faces a minimum of 15 and up to 30 years for each count of producing and advertising of child pornography in addition to a $250,000 fine.

The charges are the result of an investigation conducted by members of the Innocent Images Unit of the FBI, including task force officers from Houston Police Department, which focuses its attention on investigating offenses involving the exploitation of children via the Internet.

This case, prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sherri Zack, 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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to 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.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”