Grand Jury Indicts Two in Separate Child Exploitation Cases
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 30, 2012 |
BIRMINGHAM—A federal grand jury today indicted a Decatur man for producing, distributing, receiving, and possessing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Robert E. Haley III.
A four-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges STEVEN ANDREW THOMAS, 43, with inducing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, between December 2009 and December 2011 in Morgan County, for the purpose of producing a picture of that conduct. Thomas also is charged with distributing child pornography via the Internet in September 2011; receiving child pornography via the Internet in November 2011; and possessing child pornography in December 2011.
In a separate child exploitation case, the grand jury charged JOSEPH WAYNE KING, 54, of Oklahoma, with failing to register as a convicted sex offender in Alabama after moving from Oklahoma to Madison County in February. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act requires convicted sex offenders to register and update their registration as sex offenders wherever they live, attend school, or are employed.
The FBI investigated the case against Thomas; and the U.S. Marshals Service, with assistance from the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, investigated the case against King. Assistant U.S. Attorney Staci G. Cornelius is prosecuting both cases.
The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.