Stanley Weems Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Production of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 01, 2012 |
GREENEVILLE, TN—Stanley Weems, 68, of Baileyton, Tennessee, was sentenced on April 30, 2012, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee following his conviction for production of child pornography.
The Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, U.S. District Judge, sentenced Weems to serve 15 years in prison, followed by supervised release for life. There is no parole in the federal system. A hearing on the amount of restitution will be scheduled at a later date.
Weems used the video and camera functions on cellular telephones to record images of minors engaged in sexually explicit poses and of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct with adults. Investigators were alerted to his crimes by a victim of the offenses. These allegations were also confirmed by other adults engaged in the offenses, who had been misled by Weems about the minor child’s age.
U.S. Attorney, Bill Killian, said, “This conviction represents the continuing commitment of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to bring those who would harm the most vulnerable in our society to justice.”
On September 13, 2011, a three-count indictment, which included the aforementioned charge, was returned against Weems by a federal grand jury. This indictment was the result of an ongoing investigation by the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Gregory Bowman represented the United States.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a Department initiative launched in 2006 that aims to combat the proliferations of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal, 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, visit www.ProjectSafeChildhood.gov.