Arizona Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
for Receipt of Child Pornography

Charles Brown, 54, of Mesa, Ariz., was sentenced today to five years in prison and lifetime supervised release following his prison term for receiving child pornography. 

Brown was indicted on May 8, 2008, on charges of receipt and possession of child pornography. The charges arose after Brown responded to an advertisement offering child pornography videos that had been placed on the Internet by a U.S. Postal Inspector working undercover. After Brown selected and paid for a video, Postal Inspectors obtained an anticipatory search warrant.  On the day that the video was delivered to Brown’s home, the inspectors executed the warrant and searched Brown’s computer, finding additional child pornography.

Brown pleaded guilty on March 10, 2009, to one count of receipt of child pornography. As part of the plea agreement, Brown admitted to ordering from the undercover inspector a video containing child pornography.

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 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.

The case was prosecuted by CEOS Trial Attorney James Silver, with assistance from Senior Litigation Counsel Vincent Q. Kirby and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon K. Sexton of the District of Arizona.  The U.S. Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation.