Auburn Man Gets Four+ Years in Prison for Possession of Child Pornography
Defendant Sent Pornography to Two Different Agents Posing Online as Young Girls

RANDY PARSONS, 53, of Auburn, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 50 months in prison and ten years of supervised release for Possession of Child Pornography. As part of his supervised release, PARSONS will be required to register as a sex offender, submit to sexual deviancy treatment, and have his contact with minors and computers significantly limited. A search of PARSONS computer in November 2007, revealed 445 images of child pornography and 121 videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit activity. PARSONS pleaded guilty in November 2008. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez said PARSONS’ “grooming behavior is extremely troubling....By trading in this material there are others who are pushed (to hands-on molestation) and other children are victimized.”

According to records filed in the case PARSONS became known to law enforcement in late 2006 and early 2007 when he began communicating online with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl. In fact, the person at the other end of the chat was a Special Agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). PARSONS engaged in sexual chat and sent pornographic videos. In April 2007, PARSONS began communicating with a second person whom he believed was a different 13-year-old girl. The second person was a Cook County, Illinois Sheriff’s Deputy. PARSONS sent adult and child pornography videos and images to the investigator, and masturbated with the intent that the purported 13-year old girl view the act via webcam.

In asking for a prison sentence, Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Diggs noted that PARSONS “engaged in sexually related online conversations with not one, but at least two purported minors in the span of less than a year....Parsons’ conduct is predatory. Not only did he engage these two purported minors in sexual discussion, but he masturbated via webcam with the intent that at least one of the purported minors view the activity; he sent obscene material to both subjects, and child pornography to one of them. Rather than keep his addiction and his perversions to himself, the defendant sought to exert control over two thirteen-year-old girls for his own sexual gratification.”

This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the U.S. 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/.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Cook County Illinois Sheriff’s Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Diggs.