Virginia Man Sentenced to Serve 168 Months in Prison on Child Pornography Charges
| U.S. Department of Justice January 28, 2013 |
WASHINGTON—An Orange County, Virginia man was sentenced today to serve 168 months in prison following his March 2011 guilty plea to child pornography charges that originated in three different federal districts.
The sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia, and U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida.
Anthony C. Jeffries was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon in the Western District of Virginia. On March 28, 2011, Jeffries pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography on charges contained in an indictment filed in the Western District of Virginia and two separate one-count criminal informations originally filed in the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of Florida, each charging him with distributing child pornography. Jeffries was sentenced to 168 months in prison for each count of distributing child pornography and 120 months in prison for possessing child pornography. The prison sentences for each count will be served concurrently. In addition to his prison term, Jeffries was sentenced to serve lifetime supervised release.
According to information presented in court, Jeffries assisted in running an online forum from his Orange County home that was dedicated to posting pictures and chatting about young girls. The defendant was responsible for one-fourth of the images available on the forum.
In February 2010, undercover FBI agents working in Richmond, Virginia and Miami logged onto a peer-to-peer file sharing network and downloaded numerous images of child pornography from Jeffries. In June 2010, a search warrant was obtained and computer equipment was seized from the defendant’s Virginia home. A forensic examination of that equipment revealed thousands of image files, including images of young children engaged in sexual acts with adults.
The investigation of the case was conducted by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office; the FBI; the Charlottesville, Virginia Police Department; the University of Virginia Police Department; and the High Technology Investigative Unit of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Healey and Trial Attorney Darcy Katzin with the Criminal Division’s CEOS are prosecuting the case for the Western District of Virginia. Elizabeth Wu is prosecuting the case for the Eastern District of Virginia.
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 U.S. Attorneys’ offices and 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.justice.gov/psc.