Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Charges

WASHINGTON—Timothy Lantz, 57, of Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty today in Columbus to one count of transportation of child pornography and one count of failing to update his sex offender registration, Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Gregory G. Lockhart and Special Agent-in-Charge William Plunkett of the FBI in Cincinnati, announced.                                 

During today’s plea hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark R. Abel, Lantz admitted transporting and shipping child pornography from Ohio to New York through the Internet and to failing to update his sex offender registration.  Lantz admitted that in connection with the commission of his crimes, he had in his possession multiple computer hard drives containing approximately 1,200 digital videos and 9,000 digital images of one or more minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.  Lantz further admitted that he provided access for others to download his child pornography files either for free or in exchange for other child pornography images.

Lantz is scheduled to be sentenced no earlier than 60 days from today.  He may face a sentence of 180 months in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to a life-time term of supervised release.  He will be required to continue to be registered as a sex offender in accordance with state and federal law.

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 U.S. 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 case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Solove of the Southern District of Ohio and Trial Attorney Mi Yung C. Park of CEOS.  The case was investigated by the Cybercrimes Task Force of the FBI’s Columbus, Ohio Field Office and CEOS’ High Technology Investigative Unit.