News Releases

Texas man sentenced to 41 months for possessing child pornography

HOUSTON - A Dickinson, Texas, man was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison without parole and ordered to register as a sex offender for possessing child pornography announced U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno on Tuesday. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Kemah Police Department.

Richard Carl Green, 46, was sentenced to 41-month sentence by U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison Green was also ordered to serve a life term of supervised release, register as a sex offender and comply with special conditions designed to limit his access to the Internet and children. Green was convicted of the federal felony offense after pleading guilty on Dec. 17, 2009. Green remains on bond pending his sentencing.

The ICE investigation began when agents in Newark determined that Green had paid for a subscription to a child pornography website. ICE agents identified the server hosting the child pornography website in Tampa, Fla., and executed a search warrant at that location. The search yielded e-mails and log files as well as the images/videos that could be accessed on the website, including two e-mails from Green to the webmaster dated April 15 and 16, 2008, stating he had not received his purchase and asking the child pornography site to please check on it. On April 17, 2008, a reply from the webmaster to Green stated that he was billed $79.99 and provided an Internet address to access the child pornography website. Computer files showed that Green accessed the child pornography website between April 17 and May 1, 2008, from a computer at his home in Dickinson.

Galveston ICE agents executed federal search warrants at Green's residence in Dickinson, as well as his business in Houston on March 19, 2009. Images of child pornography were discovered on the defendant's computer in his office, a computer in his home and on a number of CDs also found in his home. More than 1,000 images and 127 videos containing child pornography were seized. The CDs, which contained the videos, were labeled "LS videos" and "LS pics" which is a known reference to a child pornography site.

The images and videos were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who were able to verify that images from 19 identified victims were found on Green's computer equipment.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE 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. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 12,000 individuals.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Stabe.