San Angelo, Texas Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Federal Prison

SAN ANGELO, TX—Warren Elton Wittcop, 52, of San Angelo, Texas, was sentenced on Friday by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 25 years in federal prison following his guilty plea in April 2011 to two counts of producing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Judge Cummings also ordered that Wittcop, who is in custody, serve a lifetime of supervised release.

According to documents filed in the case, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Wittcop’s residence in June 2010 and discovered sexually explicit images of an underage female stored on a memory card hidden in the inside band of a hat found in his bedroom. Investigators were able to determine that images located on the memory card were produced in Wittcop’s residence. Wittcop admitted that on several different dates from 2007 through 2010, he conducted photographic modeling sessions during which one model, Jane Doe 1, who Wittcop knew was under age 18, was photographed in sexually explicit poses.

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 United States 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, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov

The case was investigated by the FBI; the Metro-East Cybercrimes and Analysis Task Force, East St. Louis, Illinois; the Troy, Illinois Police Department; the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office; and the U.S. Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lubbock, Texas, prosecuted.