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February 15, 2007
Belmont man pleads guilty to ten counts of transporting, receiving, and possessing child pornography
SAN FRANCISCO - A 34-year-old Belmont man faces up to 190 years in prison after pleading guilty here this week to ten counts of transporting, receiving, and possessing child pornography obtained over the Internet following an 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. Ockenfels entered his plea before U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston approximately one week before his trial was scheduled to begin.
The plea is the latest development in a case that began in October 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 November 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 featuring 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 the investigation into these leads is still ongoing.
“This is one of the most egregious and far-reaching Internet child pornography cases we've ever uncovered in the Bay Area,” said Charles DeMore, special agent in charge for the ICE Office of Investigations in San Francisco. “As this case illustrates, the advent of new technologies like the Internet has increased the accessibility of child pornography. But this has only intensified our resolve to pursue those who victimize the most vulnerable among us.”
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.
Ockenfels remains free on bond pending his sentencing June 1. The maximum penalty for each of the six transportation counts is 20 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum prison term of five years, and a fine of $250,000. The maximum statutory penalty for each of the three receipt counts is 20 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum prison term of five years, and a fine of $250,000. The maximum statutory penalty for the possession count is ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Assistant United States Attorney Robert David Rees of the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California and Darcy Katzin, Trial Attorney with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the United States Department of Justice are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Ana Guerra, Lilian Arauzhaase, Nancy Dick, Kathy Huynh, Miche Sharpe, and Nai Saelee.
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