John Robert Starcevich Sentenced in U.S. District Court
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 30, 2009 |
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Missoula, on July 30, 2009, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, JOHN ROBERT STARCEVICH appeared for sentencing. STARCEVICH was sentenced to a term of:
- Probation: 5 years, with 6 months of home confinement
- Special Assessment: $100
STARCEVICH was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to receipt of obscenity.
In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia K. Hurd, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
In September of 2007, an individual in Butte provided a computer belonging to STARCEVICH to law enforcement. The individual had been asked by STARCEVICH to repair the computer. While working on the computer, the individual observed sexually explicit images of young children.
STARCEVICH was contacted by law enforcement and consented to a search of the computer. Found during the forensic examination were a small amount of older child pornography images, along with browsing activity indicative of child pornography searches.
STARCEVICH had used his computer in Butte during 2006 and 2007 to obtain the images.
When questioned, STARCEVICH admitted that he had used various search terms that resulted in him obtaining images of persons that were under the age of 18 years.
A forensic examination of the computer revealed that STARCEVICH had used the computer to search the Internet for various other types of images. Some of the images found were obscene, in that they were images of persons under the age of 18 years engaged in sexually explicit conduct by a lascivious exhibition of their genital areas. The images had been received via an interactive computer service and STARCEVICH'S computer. Several of the images were of known children.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that STARCEVICH will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, STARCEVICH does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.