thedrifter
10-07-08, 07:45 AM
Former Marine gets 12 years for 650,000 child porn images
By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
October 7, 2008
NORFOLK
A Virginia Beach man was sentenced Monday to 12 years in federal prison in what authorities called an astonishing and unprecedented case involving 650,000 child pornography images discovered in one house.
A federal judge granted a prosecutor's request that William L. Judy, 51, get additional prison time for possessing the high number of images as well as for his admitted contact with minor prostitutes in Mexico and Thailand.
Judy, who served 16 years in the Marine Corps, was arrested earlier this year after federal immigration agents discovered that he had purchased an $80 subscription to a child pornography Web site, according to court filings.
He pleaded guilty in June to attempted receipt of child pornography but admitted in a statement of facts that he actually purchased the child pornography and had it on his computer and on CDs.
The investigation began in 2006 as federal agents opened a case against an unidentified criminal organization operating some 200 child pornography Web sites. That led to the discovery of Judy's $80 purchase, court records say.
Agents and Virginia Beach police searched Judy's home last December and discovered a carefully organized library of CDs and DVDs, each labeled with a small child porn image, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa O'Boyle.
She told U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Friedman that the 650,000 images included 325,000 still images and 325,000 video images, but that the number was conservative. Agents simply stopped counting at a certain point.
"The child pornography collection that the defendant had was pretty much unlike anything the U.S. Attorney's Office here has ever seen before," she told the judge.
In seeking a longer prison term than what sentencing guidelines called for, O'Boyle told the judge that the collection contained "particularly brutal" and "horrendous acts of bondage and bestiality" involving children. Some were as young as infants, she said.
Judy also told court officials during a pre-sentence interview that in the early 1990s he visited Tijuana, Mexico, and Thailand and paid money to have sex with girls who said they were minors, O'Boyle said. He told the officials that he paid more money for the prostitutes because they were young.
He later tried to back off those statements by saying he did not actually know their ages, O'Boyle said.
The judge, who also said he had never seen a case involving this many child porn images, granted O'Boyle's request for additional prison time. In fact, he gave Judy nine more months than O'Boyle had asked for.
He also sentenced Judy to lifetime supervision upon his release from prison.
Judy's lawyer, Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., argued for a guideline sentence of 10 years or less, telling the judge that it is still "a substantial sentence for someone who's never been in trouble before."
He also asked that Judy get credit for serving his country. Judy served in the Marines from 1980 to 1996.
Just before handing down the sentence, Friedman asked Judy if he had anything to say.
"No, sir," he replied.
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
Ellie
By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
October 7, 2008
NORFOLK
A Virginia Beach man was sentenced Monday to 12 years in federal prison in what authorities called an astonishing and unprecedented case involving 650,000 child pornography images discovered in one house.
A federal judge granted a prosecutor's request that William L. Judy, 51, get additional prison time for possessing the high number of images as well as for his admitted contact with minor prostitutes in Mexico and Thailand.
Judy, who served 16 years in the Marine Corps, was arrested earlier this year after federal immigration agents discovered that he had purchased an $80 subscription to a child pornography Web site, according to court filings.
He pleaded guilty in June to attempted receipt of child pornography but admitted in a statement of facts that he actually purchased the child pornography and had it on his computer and on CDs.
The investigation began in 2006 as federal agents opened a case against an unidentified criminal organization operating some 200 child pornography Web sites. That led to the discovery of Judy's $80 purchase, court records say.
Agents and Virginia Beach police searched Judy's home last December and discovered a carefully organized library of CDs and DVDs, each labeled with a small child porn image, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa O'Boyle.
She told U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Friedman that the 650,000 images included 325,000 still images and 325,000 video images, but that the number was conservative. Agents simply stopped counting at a certain point.
"The child pornography collection that the defendant had was pretty much unlike anything the U.S. Attorney's Office here has ever seen before," she told the judge.
In seeking a longer prison term than what sentencing guidelines called for, O'Boyle told the judge that the collection contained "particularly brutal" and "horrendous acts of bondage and bestiality" involving children. Some were as young as infants, she said.
Judy also told court officials during a pre-sentence interview that in the early 1990s he visited Tijuana, Mexico, and Thailand and paid money to have sex with girls who said they were minors, O'Boyle said. He told the officials that he paid more money for the prostitutes because they were young.
He later tried to back off those statements by saying he did not actually know their ages, O'Boyle said.
The judge, who also said he had never seen a case involving this many child porn images, granted O'Boyle's request for additional prison time. In fact, he gave Judy nine more months than O'Boyle had asked for.
He also sentenced Judy to lifetime supervision upon his release from prison.
Judy's lawyer, Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., argued for a guideline sentence of 10 years or less, telling the judge that it is still "a substantial sentence for someone who's never been in trouble before."
He also asked that Judy get credit for serving his country. Judy served in the Marines from 1980 to 1996.
Just before handing down the sentence, Friedman asked Judy if he had anything to say.
"No, sir," he replied.
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
Ellie