September 8, 2015

Dallas County Man Sentenced to 144 Months in Federal Prison on Federal Child Pornography Conviction

DALLAS—A 27-year-old Irving, Texas, man, Frank Olivarez, Jr., who pleaded guilty in December 2014 to one count of transporting and shipping child pornography, was sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 144 months in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, in February 2014, a task force officer with the FBI, who was conducting an investigation into the sharing of child pornography on a BitTorrent file-sharing network, identified a computer that was sharing files containing child pornography. The task force officer downloaded 695 image and video files from Olivarez, 648 of which were child pornography.

The FBI then secured a search warrant that they executed at Olivarez’s home. Olivarez admitted using BitTorrent software to download and view child pornography. Agents seized computer media from the home and further forensic analysis revealed that 33 images depicted the sexual exploitation of infants and toddlers.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks prosecuted.