| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 19, 2007 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN |
SAN FRANCISCO– United States Attorney Scott N. Schools announced that John Aicega was sentenced yesterday to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay a $75,000 fine for receiving and distributing child pornography over the internet.
Mr. Aicega pleaded guilty on June 8, 2007. According to the plea agreement, the defendant admitted to downloading and receiving hundreds of images of child pornography over the internet. Using his home computer, the defendant both received and distributed material containing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including but not limited to minors engaged in sexual intercourse as well as the lascivious exhibition of the genitals and pubic areas of minors. The defendant also admitted to knowing that some of the images involved the use of prepubescent minors and minors under the age of twelve years old.
The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston following a guilty plea on the single count in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252A(a)(2)(B). Judge Illston also sentenced the defendant to a life term of supervised release upon completion of his sentence of imprisonment. The defendant has been in custody since his guilty plea on June 8, 2007.
This investigation and prosecution are part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative launched last year by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at combining federal, state, and local law enforcement resources to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. The threat of sexual predators soliciting children for physical sexual contact is well-known and serious; the danger of the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography is equally dramatic and disturbing. The Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood is a coordinated and comprehensive response to these growing problems.
Keslie Stewart is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Margaret Glyer and Cynthia Daniel. The prosecution is the result of an on-going investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Further Information:
Case #:CR 07-0329
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Joshua Eaton at (415) 436-6958 or by email at Josh.Eaton@usdoj.gov.