James T. Jacks
Acting United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

TARRANT COUNTY MAN SENTENCED TO MORE THAN EIGHT YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

FORT WORTH, Texas — Royce Dean Powers, of Hurst, Texas, who pleaded guilty in April to possessing child pornography, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge John McBryde, to 97 months in prison, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Powers, 47, was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release.

According to documents filed in the case, on April 7, 2008, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents visited the Powers residence, based on a lead from a “peer-to-peer” computer investigation in Dallas. The lead concerned a target at the Powers’ residence who was acquiring child pornography from the Internet. Powers allowed agents to search his computers and they discovered child pornography. Powers admitted possessing videos of child pornography and using the search terms “young girls” and “threesomes” when locating child pornography on the Internet.

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

The case was investigated by ICE and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex C. Lewis.

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