Ferriday Funeral Home Director Pleads Guilty to Receiving Child Pornography

ALEXANDRIA, LA—U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that funeral home director John Casey Young, 45, of Vidalia, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell to knowingly receiving child pornography on his computer.

According to court documents, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, during an investigation of a separate but related matter in September 2011, discovered that Young used his work computer to search for child pornography on the Internet.

Young faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and five years of supervised release. Sentencing has been set for June 10, 2013. The Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Earl Campbell and John Luke Walker are prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) DHS-2ICE. Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls. The Alexandria FBI office number is (318) 443-5097.