Jury Convicts Utah Man of Child Pornography Charges
| U.S. Department of Justice January 15, 2013 |
WASHINGTON—A Utah man was convicted late yesterday by a federal jury in Salt Lake City of possessing, receiving, and distributing child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney David B. Barlow of the District of Utah.
Michael Loren Dunn, 43, of Park City, Utah, was convicted of one count each of possession, receipt, and distribution of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby presided over the week-long trial.
According to evidence presented at trial, Dunn, who works in the computer industry, received and shared child pornography and encrypted the files so that they could only be accessed by him. Evidence of child pornography was recovered from three different computers and two external hard drives owned by Dunn. Evidence also showed that the overwhelming majority of files the defendant searched for contained terms indicative of child pornography content.
Judge Shelby set sentencing in the case for April 8, 2013. Dunn faces up to 10 years in federal prison for his conviction on possession of child pornography. The potential maximum penalties for the receipt of child pornography and distribution of child pornography counts are 20 years per count with mandatory minimum five-year sentences for each count.
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 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, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
The case was investigated by special agents of the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark K. Vincent and Carol A. Dain of the District of Utah and Trial Attorney Jeffrey H. Zeeman of CEOS.