FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 29, 2008
WALTER MERLE OVERTON SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Missoula, on February 29, 2008, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, WALTER MERLE OVERTON, a 56-year-old resident of Manhattan, appeared for sentencing. OVERTON was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 235 months
- Special Assessment: $400
- Restitution: $432.76
- Forfeiture: related equipment
- Supervised Release: lifetime
OVERTON was sentenced after having been found guilty during a 2-day trial of two counts of sexual exploitation and receipt and possession of child pornography.
At trial, the government presented evidence of the following:
On June 5, 2006, OVERTON'S stepdaughter, age 18 at the time, told a teller at a Manhattan bank that her stepfather had raped her that morning. OVERTON was outside the bank waiting in the van for the victim to deposit checks. The teller called the Sheriff's Office and an investigation began.
Sometime in the early morning of June 5, 2006, OVERTON and his wife had left for work at Montana State University where they were both employed. Later that morning, OVERTON had made his way back to the family home. The victim testified that she was in bed and that OVERTON entered her room and told her that "this could be a life threatening experience or a life learning experience" and that he was in possession of a knife.
OVERTON admitted that he went to the room but denied the knife was his, asserting that the knife was one kept by the victim under her pillow. The victim was told to remove her clothes and then she was photographed with a digital camera.
Testimony was also presented that OVERTON had photographed the victim on two previous occasions. OVERTON had admitted to his wife that he had photographed the victim when she was a minor and that the pictures depicted her without her clothes on. His wife told him to get rid of the photographs and to not let it happen again. Instead, OVERTON copied the photographs to a small disc and transferred them to his work computer. He later reinstalled the nude pictures of the victim on the home computer claiming he did so because the victim wanted "copies" of the pictures.
A forensic review of OVERTON'S work computer and home computer revealed nude images of the victim and his wife and child pornography images.
OVERTON will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, OVERTON does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia K. Hurd prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, the Department of Justice launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' 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/.
