Ridgeway Man Sentenced for Possessing Child Pornography

MADISON, WI—John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Ralph Bennett, 56, Ridgeway, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William Conley to two years in prison, to be followed by a 20-year term of supervised release, for possession of sexually explicit images of minors. Bennett pleaded guilty to this charge on September 26, 2012.

On October 4, 2011, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at the defendant’s residence in Ridgeway and recovered a computer belonging to the defendant on which the defendant stored over 16,000 images of child pornography and 75 movies of children being sexually abused. The defendant admitted to the FBI that he had used the computer to view child pornography.

Judge Conley determined that Bennett deserved a sentence below the 63-78 months called for by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines based, in part, on the sexual abuse suffered by the defendant as a young man.

The charge against the defendant was the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Ridgeway Police Department. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul W. Connell.