Woman Who Enticed Minor Sentenced for Receiving Child Pornography in First of Its Kind Prosecution

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Angie L. Jenkins, 35, of Lowell, Michigan, convicted in federal court of receipt of child pornography, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and five years’ supervised release by U.S. District Court Chief Judge William M. Skretny. The defendant was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $4,480 to the victim.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who handled the case, stated that in October 2009, Jenkins developed an online relationship with a 15-year-old minor male victim through the online video game World of Warcraft. The relationship progressed into online chats, e-mails, and telephone calls. In the spring of 2010, the conversations turned sexual in nature and in late May 2010, the defendant told the victim that she wanted to travel to Buffalo so they could engage in sexual activity.

On June 11, 2010, Jenkins traveled from Michigan to Buffalo, met the victim, and had sex in a parked car in a park in Amherst, NY. The relationship was discovered after the minor’s parents, upon reviewing his cell phone, noticed multiple calls from an out of state number. Upon learning that Jenkins traveled to Buffalo, the parents contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Subsequent investigation revealed graphic images sent from the victim to the defendant at the defendant’s request, resulting in the ensuing federal charges.

At sentencing, the government described some of the e-mails the defendant sent to the victim during the course of the relationship and after the victim ceased contact with her. It was argued that the e-mails illustrate the extreme psychological pressure that was placed on the victim to continue the relationship, including references to the defendant committing suicide if the victim did not contact her.

The father of the victim also spoke at sentencing, describing the impact of the crime on the victim and his family.

This is the first known case in the Western District of New York involving a female defendant in a child pornography case who also crossed state lines to have sex with a minor.

“This first of its kind case is a good example of why it is important for parents to keep a close eye on the cell phone and computer usage of their children,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul. “In this case, it was alert parents who notified law enforcement which resulted in the defendant being brought to justice. As a father myself, I also can’t emphasize enough the need to have frequent conversations with your child about the dangers that online communication and sexting can pose. By all means parents should encourage children to report to them anything which does not seem right—including pressure to maintain a relationship.”

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 Attorneys’ 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.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the direction of Christopher M. Piehota, Special Agent in Charge. Additional assistance was provided by the Western New York Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, which conducted the forensic analysis of the defendant’s computer.