United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

BIG SPRING, TEXAS, MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORN CHARGE

LUBBOCK, Texas — Wendell Joe Angel, of Big Spring, Texas, pled guilty today to one count of interstate receipt of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Angel, 53, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings, who ordered a pre-sentence investigation with sentencing to be scheduled after that investigation is completed. Angel faces a maximum statutory sentence of not less than five years nor more than 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a lifetime of supervised release. He will be also be required to register as a sex offender. Angel has been on bond since he surrendered to federal officials on charges in a federal indictment returned by a grand jury in Lubbock in May 2008 that charged him with four counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

According to documents filed in the case, Angel admitted that in the early part of 2007, he became interested in child pornography. He began using the peer-to-peer software file sharing program, Limewire, to download music and eventually started using the program to download adult, then child, pornography. He admits that although he never intentionally traded child pornography with anyone, he was aware that Limewire was a file sharing program and that others could view and download material saved in his Limewire library. Besides using Limewire to view and obtain child pornography, Angel accessed the material using a “lolita bbs” link on the excite.com website.

Wendell Joe Angel admitted downloading sexually explicit images of girls who were 10-years-old or older. He transferred the child pornography images and video files he downloaded from the Internet onto CDs that he stored in a locked gun safe in his residence.

In August 2007, a Special Agent with the FBI conducted a keyword search for child pornography images using a peer-to-peer software and downloaded 18 images of child pornography. It was determined that these images were downloaded from Angel’s computer in Big Spring, Texas. Two months later, an undercover police officer, conducting the same

keyword search, downloaded additional images of child pornography, again determining the source of the images was from a computer located at Angel’s residence. On April 22, 2008, a search warrant was executed at Angel’s residence. He was shown all of the images and he identified them as images he had downloaded from the Internet onto his home computer.

This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov

U.S. Attorney Roper commended the investigative efforts of the FBI and the Howard County District Attorneys Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorney's Office.

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