Juneau Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Distributing Child Pornography

Anchorage, Alaska – U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that, yesterday, a Juneau man was sentenced to federal prison for the distribution of child pornography.

Steven Raymond Foster, 55, of Juneau, Alaska, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess to 78 months in prison for a single count of distribution of child pornography.  Upon the completion of his prison term, Foster must complete a 30-year term of supervised release.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack S. Schmidt, who prosecuted the case, informed the court that Foster became the subject of an investigation after federal law enforcement had downloaded from Foster, through the use of a peer to peer (P2P) file sharing program, 12 videos that contained images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  A search warrant was executed at the defendant’s residence where over 2,000 images and 54 videos were located that contained images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  In an interview, Foster admitted to downloading the images and videos located on his computer and admitted to using a P2P program that distributed the images to others.  Foster further admitted that he knew it was illegal to view, possess, and distribute child pornography, but that he did not expect that anybody would come looking for him.  

The charges against Foster are the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 

This prosecution is part of the Department of Justice ongoing Project Safe Child (PSC) initiative.  In May 2006, DOJ launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices, Project Safe Childhood combines federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, identify and rescue victims and to educate the public about safe Internet use, thereby reducing the risk that children might fall prey to online sexual predators.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.