Indictments Returned in Hammond Federal Court

HAMMOND, IN—The United States Attorney’s Office announced that the following indictments were returned on October 6, 2011:

Eric Crosslin, 25, of Gary, Indiana, was charged in an indictment with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and one count of possession of marijuana. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives HIDTA Task Force. This case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dean Lanter.

Troy Lively, 42, of Westville, Indiana, was charged in an indictment with the bank robbery by force or violence of the DeMotte State Bank of $6,854.00 on or about September 6, 2011. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the DeMotte Police Department. This case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Padilla.

Latoya Travis, 39, of Hammond, Indiana, was charged in an indictment with failure to surrender for service of her sentence as ordered by the court. Travis was to report to the Bureau of Prisons on February 22, 2011 to begin her sentence of 42 months after being found guilty of aggravated identity theft and making false statements on a loan application. These charges were filed as the result of an investigation by the United States Marshals Service. This case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gary Bell.

Brian Reider, 51, of Valparaiso, Indiana, was charged in a superseding indictment with producing, distributing and possessing child pornography. The distribution and possession charges were originally brought in June of this year. The production of child pornography charge brought this week alleges that Reider knowingly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced a 12-year-old boy to engage in sexually explicit conduct so that he could produce visual depictions of that conduct.

The investigation into Reider’s conduct began in September 2010, when a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent working in an undercover capacity used a publicly available peer-to-peer file-sharing program to download from a user multiple video files depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The results of an administrative subpoena issued to the Internet service provider of the user identified the subscriber as Brian Reider. A federal search warrant was subsequently obtained and executed at Reider’s residence in Valparaiso, Indiana, where law enforcement found hundreds of videos and images depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Anyone with information relevant to the investigation is asked to contact the Indianapolis office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at (317) 595-4000. Along with the FBI, this case is being investigated by two Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force members: the Kokomo Police Department and the Highland Police Department. The case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill R. Koster.

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.

The specific sentence in each case to be imposed upon conviction will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The United States Attorney’s Office emphasized that an Indictment is merely an allegation and that all persons charged are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.