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November 01, 2007
Belmont man sentenced to 10 years on myriad of child pornography charges
Computers seized by ICE contained numerous sexually explicit images of minors
SAN FRANCISCO - A 35-year-old Belmont man was sentenced Tuesday to ten years in prison for a myriad of child pornography charges, the result of a three-year investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Timothy Jacob Ockenfels pleaded guilty February 12 to multiple counts related to the transportation, receipt, and possession of child pornography over the Internet.
The ten-year sentence is the latest development in a case that began in 2004 after ICE agents received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children linking Ockenfels's America Online email account to the distribution of child pornography.
According to a criminal complaint, ICE agents interviewed Ockenfels at his Belmont home in 2004, at which time he denied any involvement with child pornography, but agreed to allow investigators to search his computer. A subsequent forensic analysis of that computer turned up numerous images of child pornography, including depictions of rape and sadomasochistic behavior involving both prepubescent girls and boys.
Approximately one week later, ICE agents returned to the defendant's home to execute a search warrant. While there, agents found and seized a second computer containing numerous images of child pornography including explicit sexual acts between adults and prepubescent boys and girls.
When agents returned to the defendant's home in January 2005 with an arrest warrant, they observed yet another computer in Ockenfels's possession. ICE agents obtained a search warrant for the third computer and again recovered numerous images and movies depicting child pornography associated with Ockenfels's America Online email account, including an approximately eighteen minute video depicting a prepubescent female engaged in numerous sex acts with an adult male.
Over the course of the investigation, agents also seized "buddy lists" from Ockenfels' home containing more than 200 screen names belonging to individuals in the United States, Canada, England, and Australia with whom Ockenfels chatted, emailed, and traded child pornography. According to ICE agents, there have been at least six additional indictments stemming from the "buddy list" leads so far, and investigation is still ongoing.
"This case demonstrates the egregiousness of Internet child pornography and ICE's commitment to aggressively identify and investigate predators who engage in the sexual exploitation of children", said Mark Wollman, acting special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in San Francisco. "This sentence serves as a strong reminder that the sexual exploitation of children is a crime that will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, requires Ockenfels to serve ten years in prison, after which he will be required to register as a sex offender and spend the rest of his life on supervised release. He will only be able to access the Internet with permission, and will be required to keep a daily log of all Internet addresses he accesses that are not directly related to his employment. Ockenfels, who was immediately taken into custody after the sentence was pronounced, was also ordered to pay $1,000 in special assessments.
Ockenfels was originally indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2005. That indictment was superseded once in October 2005, and again in July 2006. He was ultimately charged with six counts of transporting child pornography, three counts of receiving child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography.
-- ICE --
