U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas issued the following announcement on March 16.
In San Antonio today, a federal judge sentenced a San Antonio man to 108 months in federal prison for possessing over 2,500 images and 112 videos depicting child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden, San Antonio Division.
In addition to the prison term, Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra ordered that 44-year-old Jeffrey Clinton Michalik pay $68,000 in restitution to eight known victims, pay a $5,000 assessment under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act and be placed on supervised release for a period of ten years after completing his prison term.
“As this sentence makes clear, those who exploit innocent children will face serious consequences,” stated HSI Special Agent in Charge Folden. “Targeting these crimes against children is a top priority for HSI. We will continue to dedicate law enforcement resources to identify and bring to justice child predators who traumatize and victimize children.”
On September 4, 2019, a jury convicted Michalik on one count of possession of child pornography. Evidence presented at trial revealed that five images of child pornography were downloaded from a website in Switzerland using the defendant’s secure IP address assigned to his house. HSI agents executed a federal search warrant for child pornography at the defendant’s house. The defendant admitted viewing child pornography on a laptop computer and provided agents with consent to search that computer. The laptop computer contained over 2,500 images and 112 videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The majority of the child pornography files depicted children under the age of 12, including children as young as three.
HSI agents investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the 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, 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Original source can be found here.
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