United States Attorney Anne M. Tompkins
Western District of North Carolina
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Douglas Paul Gregson, 55, of Sanford, N.C. was sentenced to serve 168 months in federal prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release for online enticement charges, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. for the Western District of North Carolina. U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger also ordered the defendant to register as a sex offender.
Joining U.S. Attorney Tompkins in making today’s announcement are Kelly Moser, Special Agent in Charge of the Computer Crimes Unit of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NC SBI); Sheriff Van Duncan, of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office; Chief Brett Holloman of the Woodfin Police Department; and Chief Erik Summey of the Fletcher Police Department.
Gregson was indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2011, on one count of attempting to persuade, induce, entice, and coerce an individual whom he believed to be under 18 to engage in unlawful sexual conduct. Gregson pled guilty to the charge in June 2011. According to court documents and court proceedings, the defendant engaged in an online chat with a minor he believed to be an 11-year-old girl, but unknowingly made contact with law enforcement instead. Court records indicate that during the course of the online chat with the “minor,” Gregson sent her images containing child pornography and suggested that they meet to engage in sexual acts and to produce child pornography images of her. Gregson then proceeded to ask the minor to meet him at a Days Inn motel located in Woodfin, N.C. Law enforcement officers arrested Gregson when he drove to the agreed location to meet with the 11-year-old girl. During the course of the investigation, law enforcement agents found child pornography images contained in Gregson’s computer, including the images he had transmitted to the minor.
Gregson is in local federal custody. He will be transferred into the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.
The case was investigated by SBI, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, the Woodfin Police Department, and the Fletcher Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Thorneloe of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville.
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