FRESNO, Calif.  – A former Clovis youth softball coach has been sentenced to 295 months in prison for receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography, following a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, and the Clovis Police Department.

Mark Alan McGarry, 46, was sentenced here yesterday by United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger.  As part of his sentence, McGarry will be on supervised release for life following his release from prison.  In addition, McGarry’s access to children and the Internet will be restricted and he will be required to register as a sex offender.

McGarry, who pleaded guilty to the charges, admitted that from approximately December 26, 2006, through January 6, 2005 in Fresno County, he used the Internet to save, receive, and distribute visual depictions of the sexual exploitation of minors and prepubescent minors, as well as images of minors engaged in sadistic or masochistic conduct or other forms of violence.  The offenses involved more than 600 images in video and still formats.

The investigation began on December 28, 2004, when America Online (AOL) notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) Cyber Tip line that an AOL user, subsequently identified as McGarry, had attempted to upload a single image known to be child pornography to his AOL e-mail account.  ICE executed a search warrant at McGarry’s residence, and seized numerous images of the sexual exploitation of minors. 

According to an affidavit filed after the defendant’s arrest by ICE agents on January 6, 2005, McGarry coached a youth softball team in Clovis, California.  He admitted in his plea agreement that during or prior to the offenses involving the receipt and distribution of child pornography, he sexually abused at least two female minors in Clovis.

Further investigative casework by ICE led to the identification and arrest of at least 35 individuals connected to McGarry involved in the distribution and receipt of child pornography in the United States and elsewhere, including Jeffrey Yingst, formerly of Palmyra, Pennsylvania.  Yingst was sentenced last year to 121months in federal prison.

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