Anthoney Mitchel Brooks Sentenced in U.S. District Court
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 15, 2009 |
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Billings, on July 15, 2009, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, ANTHONEY MITCHEL BROOKS, a 27-year-old resident of Codorus, Pennsylania, appeared for sentencing. BROOKS was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 360 months
- Special Assessment: $200
- Forfeiture: computer equipment
- Supervised Release: life
BROOKS was sentenced after having been found guilty during a 2-day trial of advertisement and distribution of child pornography.
At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia K. Hurd presented evidence of the following:
On August 4, 2006, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Billings was online on the Internet, logged into the UnderNet IRC server, in a channel entitled "#aLLgirls." An individual by the screen name "bajesus" advertised files available for distribution. The file names were indicative of child pornography. The agent uploaded a public access file to receive the needed credit to download files from "bajesus." With the acquired credit, the agent downloaded ten graphic image files and two movie files from the f-serve. Pre-pubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct were in both the images and movies.
An administrative subpoena was served and "bajesus" was identified as Anthoney Mitchel Brooks of Codorus, Pennsylvania.
On March 5, 2007, a search warrant was executed on BROOKS' residence in Pennsylvania. Agents seized several items and sent them to the Billings FBI office for forensic examination. A number of graphic files and a number of movie files containing child pornography were recovered from BROOKS' digital media. BROOKS used the Internet to advertise and distribute the images of child pornography. The images included prepubescent children, sadistic or masochistic abuse or other forms of violence. BROOKS had categorized the images in his f-serve, including the child pornography images under various labels indicative of the activities in the images and movies.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that BROOKS will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, BROOKS does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Department of Justice launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.