United States Attorney James T. Jacks
Northern District of Texas

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2011
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/

TARRANT COUNTY MAN ADMITS PRODUCING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Defendant Faces Up to 30 Years in Federal Prison

FORT WORTH, Texas — Timothy E. Whitington, 44, of Euless, Texas, pleaded guilty this morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton to a superseding information charging one count of producing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Whitington, who has been in custody since his arrest in late December 2010, faces a statutory sentence of not less than 15 years and up to 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and up to a lifetime of supervised release. Sentencing is set for August 29, 2011, before U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means.

According to documents filed in the case, Whitington admitted that he used a webcam and the Internet to allow visual depictions of two minor males (sons of a Michigan man) who were engaged in sexually explicit conduct, to be transmitted live on the Internet.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. 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

ICE-HSI and the Euless Police Department investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex C. Lewis is in charge of the prosecution.

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