District Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Producing Child Pornography, Traveling with Intent to Commit Child Sexual Abuse

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Tanner Stickney, 29, of the District of Columbia, was sentenced today by the Honorable Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 15 years in prison for the offenses of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor and Travel with Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Conduct, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips. Stickney pled guilty to the charges in November 2009.

According to the Statement of the Offense filed in conjunction with the plea agreement, Stickney admitted to videotaping his sexual molestation of a four-year-old child in Orlando, Florida in June of 2008. The video was found in Stickney’s Northwest D.C. home pursuant to a federal search warrant on May 15, 2009. Stickney also admitted to traveling from the District of Columbia to Orlando, Florida, on May 15, 2009, intending to again sexually abuse a prepubescent child. Stickney was arrested on May 15, 2009, at Florida International Airport after Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents followed him there from the District of Columbia. At the time of his arrest, he was found in possession of a laptop computer and electronic storage devices which contained child pornography.

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 sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips commended the outstanding efforts of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Crimes Against Children Task Force and Washington Metropolitan Police Department Detective Timothy Palchak. He also praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith A. Becker, who prosecuted the case.