Hogsett Announces Bloomington Man’s Plea of Guilty to Dozens of Child Pornography Offenses

INDIANAPOLIS—United States Attorney Joseph H. Hogsett announced today that David R. Bostic, 25, Bloomington, Ind., entered a guilty plea today to the sexual exploitation of several children, as well as his involvement in a conspiracy with subjects around the world to distribute and receive child pornography. Hogsett also revealed that a major operation has captured numerous individuals with whom Bostic had allegedly traded child pornography images, including images of children Bostic sexually exploited in Bloomington. The investigation of Bostic, and subsequent operation to capture his coconspirators, is the result of the significant efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Indiana State Police, the Kokomo Police Department and the Brownsburg Police Department.

On November 17, 2010, a federal search warrant was executed by the FBI and state and local law enforcement partners at Bostic’s residence in Bloomington. Investigators determined that Bostic possessed child pornography, and that he had distributed child pornography through multiple means. It was also discovered that Bostic had produced child pornography on multiple occasions over the previous two years, producing sexually explicit images of four minor females, between the ages of 2 months and 3 years, as well as a minor male who was 4 years old. Evidence gathered at the scene demonstrated that Bostic had distributed the images of child pornography he produced to multiple individuals. Bostic was arrested that day, and has remained in custody ever since.

Following Bostic’s arrest, a review of the evidence determined that Bostic was a member of a large group of individuals trading sexually explicit images of children, primarily focused on child pornography depicting children under 5 years of age. Some of the images produced by Bostic were distributed among the members of the group. Within days of Bostic’s arrest, an operation was launched to identify and apprehend the members of the group. More than 20 members of the group have been captured, and several alleged members have been charged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

“Among the most important missions of this office is to keep Hoosier children safe from those who would prey upon them,” said U.S. Attorney Hogsett. “The production of child pornography is a heinous crime against a child, because it perpetuates the sexual abuse of that child for as long as the images exist, particularly where, as here, the images are distributed to like minded individuals. This then fuels the twisted fantasies of those individuals, and endangers children around them.”

“The worldwide reach of the Internet, through which the horrific images produced by Bostic were distributed, now means that Hoosier children can be victimized by individuals who have never set physical foot in our state,” continued Hogsett. “Bostic’s sexual exploitation of children is among the most serious cases ever prosecuted in this District; in fact, no criminal defendant has ever been charged in this District with as many counts of the production of child pornography, and his involvement in a conspiracy to distribute child pornography is similarly significant. I am proud to say, however, that this office did not stop with Bostic, but, instead, initiated an historically significant operation with FBI to track down and apprehend those individuals, no matter where they reside, who received the images of very young, Indiana children being sexually exploited by Bostic.”

Michael S. Welch, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated, “this investigation required the cooperation of local, state, federal, and international law enforcement partners. These partners will continue to aggressively pursue those who would do harm to the most innocent victims of all and to ensure there is no safe haven on the Internet for pedophiles.”

Hogsett announced that the operation to capture Bostic’s coconspirators and those who received child pornography from him not only resulted in 20 individuals being captured, including several individuals overseas, but also the identification and rescue of more than a dozen children. Following his arrest on November 17, 2010, Bostic was formally charged in two, separate cases in late February, each of which was sealed in order to avoid alerting his co-conspirators that he had been captured. The first case charging Bostic is primarily focused on his production of child pornography, and he is charged with 36 counts of the sexual exploitation of children for that production of child pornography, and one count of the possession of child pornography. The second case focuses on Bostic’s participation in a conspiracy to sexually exploit children by the international trading of child pornography images, and charges him with 29 criminal counts. Charged along with Bostic in that second case are Domminich Shaw, 31, a resident of the United Kingdom, Richard Szulborski, 20, a resident of East Texas, Pennsylvania, Shaun Kuykendall, 32, a resident of Summerville, South Carolina, and two other individuals currently charged only as Person 1 and Person 3.

Bostic entered a plea to all counts in each of the two cases today and will be scheduled for sentencing at a later date.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven D. DeBrota and A. Brant Cook, along with Trial Attorney Michael Grant from the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section with the Department of Justice, are prosecuting the cases for the government. Bostic faces not less than 15 years, and up to more than a 1,000 years, imprisonment, up to lifetime supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine. Regarding those individuals charged along with Bostic, they remain pending trial and are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.

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