Former Belfair Resident Pleads Guilty to Manufacturing, Distributing and Possessing Child Pornography

            A former Belfair, Washington resident who once served as the president of an elementary school PTA pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to four child pornography offenses, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.  DAVID MICHAEL NAVARRO, 38, was arrested in August 2013, after investigators traced a video posted on the internet to NAVARRO.  The video showed the rape of an 8-year-old child.  Under the terms of the plea agreement, both sides will recommend a sentence of between 20 and 25 years in prison when NAVARRO is sentenced on July 21, 2014.  NAVARRO pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography.  The production counts carry a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years.  U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle is free to impose any sentence between that mandatory minimum and the maximum of 30 years in prison.

            According to the facts in the plea agreement, between November of 2011 and May of 2013, NAVARRO produced multiple videos of himself engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a young child.  Some of the videos seized from the defendant also depicted him engaged in sexually explicit conduct with a second young child, and one video depicted NAVARRO engaged in sexually explicit conduct while seated next to an unidentified child on an airplane.  Law enforcement analysis revealed more than 700 images of child pornography and 157 videos of child pornography on NAVARRO’s electronic devices including cameras, computers, thumb drives, and smartphones.  NAVARRO admits that he shared much of the child pornography he produced over the Internet, trading for other images of child pornography.

            Under the terms of the plea agreement, NAVARRO must register as a sex offender following his release from prison.  Prosecutors will recommend he be placed on supervised release for the rest of his life.

            The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Marci Ellsworth.

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 Attorney’s 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.