North Texas man pleads guilty to federal child pornography offense

DALLAS — A north Texas man pleaded guilty on Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma C. Ramirez to one count of receiving child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

James Armstrong Sparkman, of Garland, Texas faces a statutory sentence of not less than five or more than 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and up to a lifetime of supervised release. Sparkman, who remains in federal custody, is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey on May 4.

According to documents filed in the case, Sparkman admitted that he used the Internet and file-sharing software to download video files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He also admitted that he possessed well over 600 images of child pornography, and that these images/videos included images of prepubescent minors and material that portrayed sadistic and/or masochistic behavior.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, and the Garland Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa J. Miller is in charge of the prosecution.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI 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.

HSI 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.