Florida Woman Pleads Guilty to Producing and Distributing Child Pornography

WASHINGTON—Marlana Quigley, 28, of Rockledge, Florida, pled guilty today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to producing child pornography in 2007, and distributing child pornography in 2009, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips. The Honorable Ricardo Urbina scheduled the sentencing hearing for March 5, 2010. As a result of her plea, Quigley must register as a sex offender and faces a maximum statutory prison sentence of 30 years for producing child pornography and 20 years for distributing child pornography. Quigley also faces mandatory minimum prison sentences of 15 years for producing child pornography and 5 years for distributing it.

According to the government’s evidence, in 2007 or 2008, Quigley participated in the creation of two pornographic photographs of her then-six-year-old son. Those photographs were later transmitted to an individual who was in the District of Columbia at the time.

In June 2009, Quigley came to the attention of law enforcement when she chatted online with an undercover law enforcement agent, who was posing as the individual who previously received the photographs of Quigley’s son. During the chats, Quigley sent the undercover agent at least 15 videos containing child pornography. The chats culminated in an agreement to meet the undercover agent at a hotel in Florida, where Quigley and the undercover agent were to engage in illegal sex with a seven-year-old boy whom the undercover agent was to bring with him to Florida. Law enforcement arrested Quigley when she arrived at the Florida hotel for the meeting.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood and the FBI/MPD Child Exploitation Task Force. In February 2006, the Attorney General created project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

In announcing the guilty plea, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips commended the outstanding investigative work of Detective Timothy Palchak, of the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, and Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crimes Against Children Task Force. Mr. Phillips also praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen J. Spiegelhalter, who is prosecuting the case.