Glen Carbon Man Pleads Guilty to Receipt and Possession of Child Pornography

A Glen Carbon man pled guilty in federal district court on June 17, 2013, to charges of receipt of child pornography (count one) possession of child pornography (count two), the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Arlynn Gene Georgeson, 54, of Glen Carbon, Illinois, faces a term in prison on count one of not less than five years but not more than 20 years, a fine up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of five years to life. Georgeson faces a term in prison on count two of not less than ten years, but not more than 20 years, a fine up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of five years to life. Georgeson also agreed to forfeit the computer used to commit the charged offenses. In addition, upon his release from prison, Georgeson must register as a sex offender as a condition of his supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for October 1, 2013.

Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing revealed that, on September 27, 2011, during an undercover operation, two FBI agents in separate states were both able to download images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct from a computer that was later linked to Georgeson. Both offices forwarded this information to the FBI’s Fairview Heights Office, which obtained a search warrant for Georgeson’s residence in Glen Carbon, Illinois.

One of the items seized during the execution of the search warrant was a Dell Studio Laptop Computer, Model 1555. A forensic examination of the Dell laptop revealed approximately 16,282 images and 512 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The examination also revealed that several of the images of the minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct had been downloaded by Georgeson using a file sharing program on December 28, 2011.

During the search of his residence, Georgeson agreed to provide a voluntary statement to law enforcement officers. Georgeson stated that he was the sole user of the file sharing program found on the Dell Studio laptop and that he initially used the program to download music. Georgeson stated that he began to see images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in some of the downloads and subsequently started searching for such image and/or video files. Georgeson said that he viewed the “younger” images and that gender was not an issue for him. He described “younger” as being a prepubescent with no hip or breast development. He also admitted having some images involving infants saved to his laptop computer. Finally, Georgeson admitted saving the images and videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct to the laptop computer, stating that he downloaded them while his wife was at work.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Metro East Cyber Crimes and Analysis Task Force. The case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.