Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to 27 Years for Transporting and Possessing Child Pornography

FORT MYERS, FL—U.S. District Judge John E. Steele yesterday sentenced William Bokerman (66, Naples) to 27 years in federal prison for transporting and possessing child pornography. The court also ordered Bokerman to forfeit Polaroid photographs, a VHS tape, and SD cards, which contain child pornography. Bokerman was found guilty on May 14, 2012.

According to court documents, Bokerman, a registered sex offender, took photographs and a videotape of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the Dominican Republic and transported those images and video to the United States. Bokerman kept the child pornography among his belongings in Naples, Florida.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with participation from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Tama Koss Caldarone and Yolande G. Viacava.

It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”