June 23, 2009
THORNTON MAN FOUND GUILTY OF POSSESSION AND RECEIPT OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY FOLLOWING NINE DAY JURY TRIAL
DENVER – Kenneth Dean Sturm, age 48, of Thornton, Colorado, was found guilty late last week by a jury of possession and receipt of child pornography, Acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Copp announced. Sturm was found guilty following a nine-day trial before Senior U.S. District Court Judge Lewis T. Babcock. The jury deliberated for four hours before returning the two guilty verdicts. Sturm was remanded into custody without bond. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Babcock on August 28, 2009.
Kenneth Dean Sturm was first charged by Criminal Complaint on August 11, 2006. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on August 22, 2006. Superseding indictments were obtained on October 5, 2006 and on October 23, 2007, and then again on October 21, 2008. The defendant’s trial to jury began on June 8, 2009. The jury reached its guilty verdicts on June 18, 2009.
According to the facts presented at trial, the third superseding indictment, as well as the original affidavit in support of the Criminal Complaint, between January 1, 2005 and May 5, 2006, Sturm knowingly and unlawfully possessed material that contained child pornography, that had been shipped and transported in interstate and foreign commerce by any means, including by computer. The indictment also states that on June 8, 2005, Sturm knowingly and unlawfully received material that contained one or more images of child pornography, that had been mailed, shipped and transported in interstate commerce by any means, including by computer.
In October 2005, ICE special agents working in Newark, New Jersey, initiated an investigation of a child pornography website. The operators of the website were discovered to be selling child pornography image and video subscriptions to hundreds of individuals throughout the United States. Sturm was one of those individuals. The affidavit further states that Sturm is a registered sex offender who was convicted on April 20, 2006 in Adams County, Colorado of failure to register as a sex offender. He was on probation at the time of the indictment.
“Protecting children from sexual exploitation is a top priority of the Department of Justice,” said Acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette. “We will continue to work closely with agents and officers to bring child predators to justice.”
“Any use of child pornography continually victimizes the most vulnerable and innocent members of our society,” said Jeffrey Copp, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations. “ICE targets and investigates anyone who produces, possesses or shares child pornography. Then we work closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pursue prosecution, and seek justice for the victims.” Copp oversees a four-state area, which includes Colorado.
Sturm faces not less than 10 years, and not more than 20 years, for possession of child pornography by a defendant with a prior conviction for sexual abuse, sexual crimes involving minors, production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment or transportation of child pornography. Sturm also faces not less than 15 years, and not more than 40 years, for receipt of child pornography by a defendant with a prior conviction for sexual abuse, sexual crimes involving minors, production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment or transportation of child pornography.
This case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Thornton Police Department and the Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensic Lab assisted with the investigation.
The Sturm trial was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Davies, the chief of the Special Prosecutions Section of the United States Attorney’s Office, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Krislene Lorenz.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
####
