News Releases and Statements

Daniel Furrow, 40, of Piqua, Ohio, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to a year and one day in prison for having approximately 130 visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on his personal computer.

Roland J. Flath pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Milwaukee to traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in and attempting to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Flath, of Fond du Lac, Wis., traveled to Belize in July 2006, and subsequently sexually molested a minor girl from Belize.

Ricardo Del Valle-Diaz was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 17 years in federal prison for production of a video and audio recording of a special education student engaged in sexually explicit conduct while on the school bus, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Michael Strausbaugh, 31, was sentenced to 45 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He was also fined $3,500. His wife, Rebecca Strausbaugh, 33, was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by five years of supervised releases. She was fined $1,200.

Joseph Earl Ebenhoeh pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to two counts of possessing sexually explicit images of minors in a case investigated by the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. Ebenhoeh admitted to downloading sexually explicit images of minors between November 2010 and July 2011.

Mauro Rodrigo Hernandez of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, was sentenced May 6, 2012. He was also fined $15,755 (207,900 pesos). The investigation that discovered Hernandez was conducted by a bilateral cyber task force with members from SSP, PGR and HSI.

Samuel William Maines has been charged with possessing child pornography, after law enforcement, conducting an undercover operation using file-sharing software, downloaded files containing images and videos of child pornography from an IP address assigned to Maines' mother in Mesquite, Texas.

Kenneth Oray Wagner, of Tacoma, pleaded guilty to the charge in February. He admitted to sharing child pornography in online chat rooms with the username "Lusting4lil1s" (lusting for little ones).

According to court documents, in February, Patrick Mahoney, 34, of Columbus, Ohio, arranged an online sexual encounter with an undercover officer whom he thought was a 15-year-old girl. Mahoney allegedly intended to photograph the encounter with his cell phone.

Adam Joshua Cortez, 31, of Justin, Texas, was convicted by a jury after a two day trial. Cortez faces a statutory sentence of not less than 20 years and up to life in prison on the enticement charge. He faces an additional mandatory 10-year sentence, which must run consecutive to any other sentence, for committing this offense while registered as a sex offender.

Armando Ruben Avila was sentenced to more than 5 years in prison for possessing child pornography as the result of an investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). A forensic exam revealed at least 4,000 images and 50 videos of child pornography on Avila's computers.

James E. Johnston, 70, was also found guilty on two counts of receiving child pornography and on one count of possession of child pornography. The case is the product of an extensive investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Gary Lee Jackson, of Garland, Texas, was sentenced to 360 months in prison for possessing child pornography. During Jackson's sentencing hearing, an officer with the Garland Police Department (GPD) testified that Jackson admitted to him that he had sexually exploited children.

David Hernandez has been sentenced to 210 months in prison following his conviction for producing child pornography. The investigation was conducted by the Corpus Christi Police Department's (CCPD) Internet Crimes against Children Task Force (ICAC) and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations.

Jason Farris of Anderson, Mo., was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison for receiving child pornography over the Internet. The sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.

Jerry Earl Troupe Jr. of Humansville, Mo., was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for receiving child pornography over the Internet. The sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.

Micah Monroe Argyle pleaded guilty Thursday to possession of child pornography following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office. HSI special agents found more than 600 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on computers and storage devices seized from Argyle's home.

Jamy Church, a former Little League baseball coach, was sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison Thursday for enticing minors via Facebook to engage in criminal sexual activities and producing child pornography, following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and the Louisiana State Police (LSP).

Charles Roy Clark, 59, of Fairfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb. According to court documents, an undercover federal agent began monitoring a website known for trading child pornography. During a visit to the "chat" portion of the website, the agent noticed that many of the users were uploading and trading child pornography images. Clark was identified as a suspect.

A former director of the Dorado, Puerto Rico, municipal band had his initial appearance in district court Monday following his arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents Friday for production of child pornography.

Daniel Cardwell of Hyattsville, Md., was sentenced Monday to 77 months in federal prison for distributing and possessing child pornography, following an investigation by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore and the Maryland State Police.

Michael Lynn Wieland was sentenced Friday in federal court to 24 years in federal prison for possessing and receiving child pornography, the longest sentence in the state's history for this type of crime. Examination of Wieland's seized electronic media revealed more than 315,000 images depicting the graphic sexual abuse of children.

Donald Strickland, of Hammond, Ind., was sentenced April 19 by U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber, Northern District of Illinois, to 75 months in federal prison without parole.

Clifford Ralph Blair was sentenced Friday to 12 years and seven months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in January 2012 to one count of receiving child pornography.

Brian David Clayworth has been sentenced to four years in prison for possession of child pornography following a probe by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Approximately 7,000 images and 200 videos were found on Clayworth's desktop computer, and another 600 images and 25 videos were found on his laptop computer.