Brownsburg Man Sentenced for Transporting and Possessing Child Pornography

INDIANAPOLIS—Joseph H. Hogsett, United States Attorney, announced today that Melvin Tabor, 57, Brownsburg, Ind., was sentenced this week for transporting and possessing child pornography, following an investigation by the Brownsburg Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Indiana State Police, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Tabor admitted that on February 13, 2009, he used a computer to transport child pornography involving images of actual minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct from his residence in Brownsburg to other persons through the Internet. The child pornography included very young children in both still images and videos. The investigation began when the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received several reports of criminal conduct involving various screen names and e-mail address later associated with Tabor. This NCMEC information, bolstered by a follow up investigation, ultimately led to the execution of a search warrant at Tabor’s residence in March 9, 2010. The investigators found numerous images and videos of child pornography discovered during a forensic examination of Tabor’s home computer.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota, who prosecuted the case for the government, Tabor was sentenced to 70 months of imprisonment, to be followed by supervised release for the remainder of Tabor’s life. He was also fined $3,000 and ordered to forfeit all of his computer equipment.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. 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.