Vestavia Man Sentenced to 24 Years in Prison on Child Pornography Charges

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A Vestavia man was sentenced today on child pornography charges, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and FBI Special Agent in Charge Carlton L. Peeples.

U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor sentenced Eugene Douglas Reid, III, 48, to 288 months in prison followed by 20 years supervised release for distribution and transportation of child pornography. Reid was convicted of these charges at trial in August.

In 2020, FBI Milwaukee, in collaboration with the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, was investigating numerous groups of individuals engaged in the receipt, possession, distribution and possible production of child sexual abuse material through a proactive operation. As part of the FBI’s operation, online covert employees documented these illegal activities and forwarded the documentation for further investigation to the appropriate FBI field office. The evidence at trial established that Reid had distributed and transported numerous videos and images of child sexual abuse material on the Kik messaging application in various private groups during the first half of 2020. In addition to the evidence collected by undercover law enforcement, Kik’s parent company, MediaLab, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also provided evidence of further illegal activity under Kik usernames associated with Reid.

“Today’s sentence is the result of the collaborative work by our law enforcement partners in Alabama and Wisconsin to protect victims of child exploitation,” U.S. Attorney Escalona said. “I encourage anyone who may have information about possible child sexual exploitation, including posts on social media, to report it to the NCMEC at CyberTipline.org or by calling 1-800-THE-LOST.”

“Individuals who engage in the distribution and production of child pornography must be held accountable for their heinous actions. That is why the FBI, along with our local, state, and federal partners will stop at nothing to ensure these individuals and groups are brought to justice,” said SAC Peeples. This sentence just reconfirms the FBI’s commitment to stopping child predators and shutting down the online networks that produce child sexual abuse material.”

The FBI Birmingham's Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the case with the assistance of FBI Milwaukee Division, Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, Vestavia Hills Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen S. Osborne and R. Leann White prosecuted the case.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  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, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.