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Press Release

Matthews, N.C. Man Sentenced To More Than 10 Years On Child Pornography Charges

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Dean Paul Stitz, 47, of Matthews, N.C. was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. to 121 months in prison on child pornography charges, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  Stitz was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.

John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division joins U.S. Attorney Rose in making today’s announcement.

According to court documents and information introduced at the sentencing hearing, from about May to about July 2014, law enforcement became aware that Stitz was using a peer-to-peer network to distribute child pornography on the Internet.  According to court records, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Stitz’s residence, seizing his laptop computer and an external hard drive. Forensic analyses of those devices revealed that Stitz possessed well over 600 images and videos of child pornography, some of which depicted minors engaging in sadistic and masochistic conduct.       

Stitz pleaded guilty in April 2016 to one count of distribution of child pornography.  He is currently in custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.  All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. 

The investigation was led by FBI.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Lambert Guinn of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice, aimed at combating the growing online sexual exploitation of children.  By combining resources, federal, state and local agencies are better able to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue those victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov

Updated October 28, 2016