Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Susan McCormick, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, Tampa Field Office, Maureen Horkan, Director, Cyber Crimes Unit of the Florida Attorney General’s Office, and Michael McAuliffe, State Attorney, Palm Beach County, announced that defendant Scott David Stuckey, of St. Petersburg, Florida was sentenced today in West Palm Beach by U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks to 27 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for transportation of child pornography, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2252(a)(1).

On January 14, 2010, law enforcement conducted an internet investigation into the trafficking of child pornography via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. During this investigation, law enforcement successfully downloaded from Stuckey child pornography images, which were being offered by Stuckey via this file sharing program. On January 15, 2010, law enforcement, aided by the Attorney General’s Cyber Crimes Unit, executed a search warrant at Stuckey’s residence in St. Petersburg. Officers located additional amounts of child pornography on Stuckey’s computer. Stuckey is a registered sex offender having been convicted of committing a prior lewd and lascivious act in the presence of a child.

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 Attorneys’ 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.

This investigation is part of ICE's Operation Predator, a nationwide initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who sexually exploit children. As part of Operation Predator, ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423. 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.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations in Tampa, the Florida Attorney General’s Office, Cyber Crimes Unit, the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office and the Boynton Beach Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rinku Tribuiani and Carmen Lineberger.

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A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.