Orange Park Man Indicted on Child Pornography Charges

JACKSONVILLE, FL—United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton announced today that a federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Charles Marvin Watkins (age 64, of Orange Park) with one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. Watkins faces at least five years and up to 20 years in federal prison on the receipt count, and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the possession count. Watkins had his initial appearance in court today. He will be arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge Monte C. Richardson on March 22, 2010, at 10:00 a.m.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Florida Attorney General’s Office, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

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.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate, and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign-national predators, whose crimes make them deportable. Launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than12,000 individuals through Operation Predator. ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866347-2423. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's Child Predator CyberCrime Unit is a member of the FBI Cyber Task Force in Jacksonville and the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, a federally funded program working nationwide to educate and support law enforcement to stop these crimes. More information on the Florida Attorney General's CyberCrime initiative is available at http://www.myfloridalegal.com.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.