Dallas County man sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for producing child pornography

DALLAS - A Dallas County man, who pleaded guilty in December to one count of producing child pornography, was sentenced on Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 20 years in federal prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Larry Pike, 40, of Balch Springs, Texas, has been in federal custody since his arrest in late August 2010 on related charges outlined in a federal criminal complaint. In addition, Pike was ordered to forfeit to the government the extensive inventory of computers and computer-related equipment that was seized during the investigation.

According to documents filed in the case, while conducting an investigation into the use of file-sharing software to distribute child pornography, an undercover police officer received child pornography from Pike's computer using LimeWire file-sharing software. On June 3, 2010, ICE HSI special agents executed a federal search warrant at Pike's home that he shared with his mother and stepfather. Several computers and other media were seized from Pike's bedroom. A preliminary forensic exam shows that more than 5000 child pornography videos have been found on the equipment to date, with a large number of videos involving prepubescent children and sadistic/masochistic images.

In addition, the forensic exam of the computer revealed more than 80 photographs of "Jane Doe," a 17-year-old girl who had been enticed by Pike to engage in sexually explicit conduct with him so that he could photograph it. Pike provided the girl alcohol before he took the photos to impair her ability to appraise or control her conduct.

In the defendant's detention order issued Aug. 30, 2010, the Court noted testimony at Pike's detention hearing that Pike contacted two women after the search warrant was executed at his residence. He told one of them if she were contacted by police to say that she was 18 years old, and he told the other woman that she "did not need to be talking to anyone," that it was "not lying" if she refused to talk, and that she needed "to stop talking about anything to anyone involving this." One of the women told agents that, while she was still a minor, she saw images of child pornography on Pike's computer and recognized some of the victims to be students from Pike's martial arts class.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

This investigation is part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.