Former Roswell city councilman sentenced for producing child pornography

ATLANTA – Kent Igleheart, a former Roswell, Georgia city councilman, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for multiple counts of producing, receiving, and possessing child pornography.

“Igleheart violated the public’s trust with his heinous conduct and possibly caused long-lasting harm to his victims” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.  “U.S. Judge District Judge Amy Totenberg described the defendant’s conduct as ‘taking a knife’ and ‘producing a deep wound in the lives of the four minors.’ Igleheart’s lengthy prison sentence reflects the seriousness of his exploitation of young girls for his sexual interest.”

“The pain and harm caused to the children, victimized by this so-called community leader, are irreparable. There is no sentence that can lessen their anguish,” said David J. LeValley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “Rest assured, the FBI led Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force (MATCH) will continue to devote significant resources to pursuing anyone who chooses to prey on our community’s children.”

According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges, and evidence presented at court: In October 2016, E.B. then 17 years old, contacted the DeKalb County Internet Crimes Against Children Unit to report that she had been communicating online since she was 13 years old with someone who had portrayed himself to be 17 years old.  E.B. reported that she had exchanged sexually graphic photographs and had sexually explicit conversations with the individual. E.B. later discovered that the person with whom she was communicating was Igleheart – not the teenage boy depicted in Igleheart’s profile photograph.

Igleheart acknowledged that he and E.B. had exchanged sexually graphic photographs beginning when she was 13 years old.  He also booked a hotel and made plans to meet with E.B. on October 20, 2016, to engage in sexual activity with her. Investigators arrested him when he arrived at Northlake Mall, the pre-arranged location. DeKalb County investigators and the FBI conducted searches of Igleheart’s phones and computers and found some of the images that E.B. had produced and sent to the defendant at his request.

Searches of Igleheart’s phones and computers also revealed that he posed online as “Kent Allen,” presented himself as a teenage boy between the ages of 14 and 17 years, and engaged in sexually graphic communications with numerous teenage girls, some of whom were as young as 13 years old. During these conversations, Igleheart persuaded and enticed the girls to take photographs of their genitalia and videos of themselves engaging in sexual conduct and transmit the images to him via the Internet.

Kent Igleheart, 55, of Roswell, Georgia has been sentenced to 20 years in prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release by U.S. Judge District Judge Amy Totenberg. He must also register as a sex offender as a condition of his supervised release. Igleheart was convicted of four counts of producing child pornography, one count of receiving child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography on January 5, 2018, after he entered a guilty plea.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the DeKalb County Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Yonette Buchanan and Richard S. Moultrie, Jr., prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood.  In February 2006, the Attorney General launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices around the country, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the home page for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division is http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/.