Richmond Man Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison for Receiving Child Pornography Via Peer-To-Peer Software

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A Richmond, Va., man was
 sentenced to 87 months in prison for receipt of child pornography,
 Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and
 U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg of the Eastern District of Virginia announced
 today.
     On April 24, 2007, the day before his trial was scheduled to begin,
 David Leroy Knellinger Sr., 60, pleaded guilty before the Honorable Robert
 E. Payne in the Richmond Division of the U.S. District Court for the
 Eastern District of Virginia to one count of receiving child pornography.
 U.S. District Judge Payne also ordered Knellinger to pay a $15,000 fine and
 serve five years of supervised release following his prison term.
     As part of his plea agreement, Knellinger admitted to using iMesh, a
 peer- to-peer software program, to obtain videos depicting children engaged
 in sexually explicit conduct. Peer-to-peer software is a program that
 allows users to connect directly over the Internet to other individuals in
 order to trade audio, image and video files. Knellinger admitted that on
 April 3, 2005, he used terms associated with child pornography to search
 for files, and downloaded and saved three illegal videos. One of the videos
 depicts a girl, aged 10 or 11, performing sexual acts on an adult male. The
 child victim in that video has been identified by law enforcement officers;
 her alleged abuser, Kenneth Freeman, was a fugitive on the "15 Most Wanted"
 list of the U.S. Marshal's Service. On May 2, 2007, Freeman was arrested in
 Hong Kong, China. He is currently contesting extradition proceedings.
     In February 2006, Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Children, a
 nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation
 and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney's 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 http://www.projectsafechildhood.net.
     The investigation of Knellinger was conducted by the Federal Bureau of
 Investigation and arose out of an investigation conducted by the U.S.
 Postal Inspection Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
 Attorney Brian R. Hood for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial
 Attorney Alexandra Gelber for the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section
 of the Criminal Division. Matthew Nelson, a former Special Assistant U.S.
 Attorney, also prosecuted the case.
 
 

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice