West Texas man sentenced to 9 years for transporting child pornography

LUBBOCK, Texas — A local man was sentenced this morning to nine years in federal prison and a 10-year term of supervised release, following his guilty plea in October 2012 to one count of transporting child pornography.

James Galen Brown, 40, admitted that he used his cell phone and its texting functions to intentionally send and receive images and videos of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ordered Brown to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons March 1.

This sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, on June 1, 2012, special agents with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) interviewed Brown after receiving information that a telephone number assigned to Brown had received text messages with attachments of child pornography. Brown admitted he used the cell phone to communicate with other individuals who shared an interest in sexually explicit images and videos of minors, and he used his cell phone to trade the material. He located these individuals on Internet chat rooms and exchanged phone numbers with them. He then traded child pornography images and videos by attaching them to text messages.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI 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. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-843-5678.

HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.