Sacramento, Calif. – United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced the arrests of five men charged with child pornography offenses. A federal grand jury indicted the defendants last Thursday, and the indictments were unsealed today.
Donald Callahan, 62, of Rocklin, was charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography. The indictment alleges that between February 28, 2011 and October 23, 2011, Callahan received child pornography, and between September 25, 2011, and September 27, 2011, he shared files of child pornography through a file sharing Internet website. According to court documents, among those files were titles that describe acts of incest as well as videos of sexual acts involving nine and 10 year olds. Callahan was arraigned today, pleaded not guilty, and was released on $25,000 bond with electronic monitoring.
Matthew Mark Battersby, 44, of Folsom was charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography. The indictment alleges that between September 22, 2009 and September 10, 2011, Battersby received child pornography, and on August 28, 2011, he shared child pornography through a file sharing Internet website. According to court documents, among the files were digital movies of the sexual molestation of children as young as three years old. His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday, December 20, 2011.
Alan Irwin Burnor, 65, of Carmichael, was charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. The indictment alleges that between July 23, 2010 and October 16, 2011, Burnor received visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, on September 19, 2011, he shared files of child pornography through a file sharing Internet website. According to court documents, among those files were images and movies with file names that described incest, the rape of “Little Girls,” and the molestation of children as young as nine.
Burnor was arraigned today, pleaded not guilty, and was released on $25,000 bond with electronic monitoring.
Daniel James Harden, 23, of Antioch, was charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography. The indictment alleges that between May 5, 2011 and May 9, 2011, Harden received child pornography, and on May 9, 2011, he shared files of child pornography through a file sharing Internet website. According to court documents, among the files received and distributed by Harden were digital movies describing incest, the sexual molestation of toddlers, and the rape children as young as four years old. Harden was arraigned today, pleaded not guilty, and was released on $25,000 bond with electronic monitoring.
Terry Alan Snider, 65, of Manteca, was charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography. The indictment alleges that between June 15, 2011 and September 14, 2011, Snider received child pornography, and on August 25, 2011, he shared files of child pornography through a file sharing Internet website. According to court documents, among those files were digital movies describing the sexual molestation of children as young as three years old, as well as the rape of a 10-year-old boy. Snider was arraigned today, pleaded not guilty, and was released on $25,000 bond with electronic monitoring.
U.S. Attorney Wagner said: “Trafficking in child pornography creates a market for images of harmful child exploitation. In the last year, this office indicted a record number of cases involving child pornography, and we will continue to emphasize the prosecution of child exploitation offenses.”
These cases are the product of extensive investigations by the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force; the California Department of Justice; the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Assistant United States Attorney Kyle Reardon is prosecuting the cases.
The Sacramento ICAC is a federally and state-funded task force managed by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department and made up of agents from federal, state, and local agencies. The purpose of the Sacramento ICAC is to investigate online child exploitation crimes, including child pornography, enticement, and sex trafficking.
If convicted of the charges, the defendants face a statutory penalty of no less than five years and up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and lifetime terms of supervised release. The actual sentences, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
The charges are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC mobilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.