East Texas man sentenced to 10 years for possessing child pornography

BEAUMONT, Texas – A local man was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales, Eastern District of Texas on Wednesday. The investigation was jointly conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Beaumont Police Department (BPD).

Jeffery Louis Cribb, 51, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ron Clark to 120 months in federal prison, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for possessing child pornography. Cribb pleaded guilty on Feb. 7 after being indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 17, 2010.

According to court documents, on April19, 2010, ICE HSI agents and BPD officers executed a search warrant at Cribb's Orange, Texas, residence, seizing a personal computer. A forensic analysis of the seized computer revealed 1,065 child pornography images and 325 videos. Some of the images showed minors engaged in sadistic, masochistic, or violent sexual acts; some images depicted children less than 12 years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Further investigation revealed Cribb was previously convicted of one count of second-degree child molestation and two counts of third-degree child molestation in December 1996.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher T. Tortorice, Eastern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.