Boise-area man pleads guilty to federal child pornography charges
BOISE, Idaho – A Meridian man pleaded guilty Aug. 10 to federal child pornography charges, following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Josiah Paul Yeasley, 27, admitted accessing with intent to view child pornography on both desktop and laptop computers at his residence in Meridian. Yeasley's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 1 before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill.
According to the plea agreement, in May 2015, HSI special agents, aided by the Meridian Police Department, conducted a consensual forensic examination of a desktop computer at Yeasley's residence, resulting in the recovery of subject lines from his email account and saved image files that were indicative of child pornography. The discovery led to the execution of a search warrant at Yeasley's residence in July 2015, and the seizure of a laptop computer. In total, agents recovered 217 images containing child pornography from both the defendant's desktop and laptop computers.
"The cutting edge investigative techniques used by HSI special agents will continue to bring justice to those involved in child exploitation," said Steve Cagen, acting special agent in charge of HSI Seattle. "Along with our law enforcement partners, these efforts seek to end this type of heinous criminal activity and protect children worldwide."
The charges in this case are a product of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and HSI's Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators.
Led by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.
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