Virginia Man Sentenced to 12-Year Prison Term for Distribution of Child Pornography

WASHINGTON—James Wendell Brown, 51, of Warrenton, Virginia, was sentenced today to 12 years in prison for distribution of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr.; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Brown pled guilty to the charge in January 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable Richard J. Leon. Upon completion of his prison term, Brown will be placed on 20 years of supervised release.

According to the government’s evidence, on March 5, 2012, Brown contacted a man he believed to be the father of an underaged girl on a social networking site. That man turned out to be an undercover officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Over the next few days, Brown engaged in online e-mail and instant message conversations with the undercover officer. During this period of time, Brown sent the undercover officer three images of child pornography that depicted adult men engaged in sexual acts with children. During the course of his conversations with the undercover officer, Brown acknowledged having sexually abused young children in the past. Brown has been in custody since his arrest on March 28, 2012.

This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s 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.justice.gov/psc.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director in Charge Parlave, and Chief Lanier praised the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. They also commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Last and Ari Redbord, who prosecuted the case.