Erie County Man Sentenced to 12 Years In Prison for Possessing and Distributing Child Pornography

ERIE, Pa. - A former resident of Cranesville, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 12 years in jail and 20 years of supervised release on his conviction of violating federal laws relating to the sexual exploitation of children, Acting United States Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman announced today.

United States District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter imposed the sentence on Jeffrey Adam Jepson, 40.

According to information presented to the court, Jepson distributed sexually explicit photos depicting a minor victim under the age of six to an undercover officer. Jepson also possessed other images of child sexual abuse depicting minors under the age of twelve, some as young as infants and toddlers.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Assistant United States Attorney Christian A. Trabold prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

Acting United States Attorney Kaufman commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department and the Erie County Detectives Bureau for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Jepson.