Ex-Seattle-area youth baseball umpire sentenced for producing child pornography
SEATTLE – A Shoreline man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison followed by 20 years’ supervised release for production of child pornography, after a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Jeremy Gregory, 36, befriended the victims’ father while serving as a youth baseball umpire and began taking the two boys, then 13 and 11 years old, to baseball games and amusement parks. According to court records, he exploited the family’s limited financial resources, grooming the boys by offering cell phones, gift cards, and money for sexually-explicit conduct.
Many of the assaults occurred in public restrooms near fields where Gregory worked as an umpire. The older victim reported the abuse to his father who immediately contacted police.
Following Gregory’s arrest in 2015 on state violations for molesting and raping a minor, HSI agents executed a federal search warrant seizing digital devices which revealed more than 2,000 images of child rape and molestation.
“Through interviews and forensic analysis of the defendant’s digital devices, our expert investigators positively identified an innocent child victim,” said Brad Bench, special agent in charge of HSI Seattle. “Our cooperation with local authorities ended the sexual deviancy of yet another child predator who will face a long sentence for his horrific behavior.”
Gregory’s physical ailment, which causes him to be wheelchair bound, played a part in allaying any suspicions of the victims’ father. In asking for the sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court, “The deep emotional pain his actions have caused both victims and their father is immeasurable. The victims’ father is racked with guilt for not appreciating that he was being groomed by Mr. Gregory in order to gain access to the victims for sexual gratification.”
The case was investigated in coordination with the King County Sheriff’s Office and was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson. Ms. Gregson is a Senior Deputy King County Prosecuting Attorney specially designated to prosecute child exploitation cases in federal court.
The charges in this case are a product of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators.
Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.
For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI’s Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.
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