Fighting Child Sexual Exploitation and Violence in Arizona

• Department of Justice Releases First National Strategy to Combat Child Exploitation
• U.S. Marshals Service to Launch Nationwide Operation Targeting Top 500 Most Dangerous, Non-Compliant Sex Offenders
• 32 Defendants Charged, Convicted, or Sentenced in Arizona since March 1, 2010
• District of Arizona Adding Five Prosecutors to Combat Indian Country Violence

PHOENIX—United States Attorney Dennis K. Burke announced today expanded efforts to fight the sexual exploitation of children in Arizona, including a continuing focus on online sexual exploitation, and more prosecutors to address the sexual exploitation of children on the 21 federally recognized Indian reservations in Arizona, where the U.S. Attorney’s office has jurisdiction over violent felonies, including sex crimes against children.

“We are aggressively moving against child predators,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke. “The Internet should be no safe haven for child predators—their anonymity is being uncloaked. With new and unprecedented resources in our Violent Crime Section, we will bring all resources to bear to protect children from sexual violence and predation in Indian Country.”

“Protecting our nation’s youth from dangerous child predators requires a team approach from law enforcement,” said Matt Allen, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Arizona. “ICE agents aggressively investigate those suspected of exploiting children, and we will continue to work closely with the Department of Justice to ensure these criminals are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The U.S. Attorney’s comments followed the announcement today by Attorney General Eric Holder that the U.S. Department of Justice has released its first ever National Strategy to Combat Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction.

The strategy provides the first ever comprehensive threat assessment of the dangers facing children including:

• Child pornography
• Online enticement
• Child sex tourism
• Commercial sexual exploitation
• Sexual exploitation in Indian Country

The strategy builds upon the Department’s accomplishments in combating child exploitation by establishing specific, aggressive goals and priorities and increasing cooperation and collaboration at all levels of government and the private sector.

As part of the overall strategy, the U.S. Marshals Service is launching a nationwide operation targeting the top 500 most dangerous, non-compliant sex offenders in the nation. Additionally, the department will create a national database to allow federal, state, tribal, local, and international law enforcement partners to collaborate and avoid duplication of efforts, engage in undercover operations, share information and intelligence and conduct analysis on dangerous offenders and future threats and trends. The department also created 38 additional Assistant U.S. Attorney positions devoted to child exploitation cases, and over the coming months will work to fill the vacancies and train the new assistants in this specialized area.

“Although we’ve made meaningful progress in protecting children across the country, and although we’ve brought a record number of offenders to justice in recent years, it is time to renew our commitment to this work. It is time to intensify our efforts,” said Attorney General Holder. “This new strategy provides the roadmap necessary to do just that—to streamline our education, prevention and prosecution activities; to improve information sharing and collaboration; and to make the most effective use of limited resources. Together, we are sending an important message—that the U.S. government, and our nation’s Department of Justice, has never been more committed to protecting our children and to bringing offenders to justice.”

The Department of Justice strategy first analyzed the threat to our nation’s children and described the current efforts at all levels of the government against this threat. Since FY 2006, the Department of Justice has filed 8,464 Project Safe Childhood (PSC) cases against 8,637 defendants. These cases include prosecutions of online enticement of children to engage in sexual activity, interstate transportation of children to engage in sexual activity, production, distribution and possession of child pornography, and other offenses.

District of Arizona Case Profiles

Since March 2010, the district of Arizona has charged, convicted or sentenced 32 defendants on child sexual exploitation violations, which include prosecutions of:

• Distribution and possession of child pornography (17 cases)
• Sex tourism (one case—also a child pornography case)
• Interstate transportation of children to engage in sexual activity (one case)
• Sex crimes against children in Indian Country jurisdiction (14 cases).

Sex Tourism/Child Pornography

Albert T. Rogers, 52, a former Tucson area school official, pled guilty in November 2009, to charges he attempted to travel to Mexico in order to have sex with 13- to 14-year-old boy, and that he knowingly possessed child pornography. Rogers admitted to booking a sex tourism visit to Mexico through Yuma, Ariz., where he met someone whom he believed was the driver for the business (but in reality was an undercover ICE Agent). Rogers paid the “driver” $260 to cover the costs of his travel to Mexico, hotel, and sex with a young boy. Rogers admitted to being collector of child pornography which included a video of a child as young as 5 years old engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Rogers will be sentenced on August 5th at 10:30 am in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Tyler A. Townley, 30, a fifth grade teacher at Sun Canyon Elementary School in Phoenix, was arrested May 6, 2010, on charges of receipt and possession of child pornography in interstate and foreign commerce. Townley was arrested by ICE special agents, who found numerous images and video files of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct on Townley’s computer and additional flash drives.

Deewayne Bowdin, 53, of Wilcox, Ariz., pled guilty in September 2009 to seven counts of possession of child pornography, after agents seized a computer, computer equipment, and numerous compact discs from Bowdin’s home which contained over 15,600 still images and 62 movies of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He was sentenced to 60 months of incarceration followed by supervised release for the remainder of Bowdoin’s life with a number of stringent sex offender conditions, including the condition that he register as a sex offender.

In October of 2006, an FBI agent investigating the online trade of child pornography discovered that Kevin Deawne Martin, 40, of Tucson, Ariz, was sharing images of child pornography via the Internet. A subsequent examination revealed that he possessed over 200 images and videos of child pornography. Martin was sentenced June 3, 2010, to 180 months’ imprisonment for transportation and shipping of child pornography and possession of child pornography. Martin was convicted of his offenses following a jury trial on February 16, 2010. Upon release from prison he will be placed on lifetime supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender and to complete a sex offender treatment program.

Sex Trafficking of a Minor

A federal grand jury in Phoenix returned a four-count indictment against Dwayne Warren Bogan, a.k.a. “King Flavor,” 47, of Las Vegas, Nevada, for violations of sex trafficking of a minor, sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion, transporting a minor across state lines for purposes of prostitution, and transporting a person across state lines for purposes of prostitution. The indictment alleges that in February 2010, Bogan recruited and harbored a girl he knew to be under 18 to engage in sex acts as a prostitute. The indictment further alleges that Bogan, through force, fraud and coercion, compelled that same young girl to engage in sex acts. Finally, the indictment alleges that the defendant transported the young girl across state lines to engage in sex acts as a prostitute. If convicted, Bogan faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, and a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison. The case is scheduled for trial on October 5th, 2010.

Child Sex Crimes in Indian Country

Since March 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged, convicted or sentenced 14 cases involving the sexual abuse and/or aggravated sexual abuse of minors in Indian Country. In United States v. Cecil Jose, a Tohono O’odham man pled guilty to abusive sexual contact with a minor and was sentenced in May to nine years in prison. In May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would add 33 new Assistant United States Attorney positions to those Districts with Indian Country jurisdiction. The District of Arizona received five of those positions, more than any other district, and is currently in the process of filling these new positions. With the five new prosecutors added, that will bring the district’s total number of AUSAs dedicated to Indian Country to 19. These unprecedented resources will help support our strategy to fight child sexual exploitation in Indian Country.

Internet Safety and Prevention Efforts

While the Internet opens up a world of possibilities for learning and exploring, it also presents risks, particularly as children have access to the Internet and are increasingly web-savvy at younger ages. Educating children about Internet safety is therefore more important than ever. Approximately one in seven children between the ages of 10 and 17 receive sexual solicitations online. In addition, the developments of “sexting” and the potential for cyberbullying also pose risks to children. Educating children about internet safety is therefore more important than ever.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, through Project Safe Childhood prosecutions, and working with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and educators, is continually engaged in efforts to educate and prevent child sexual exploitation. To help or receive more information, contact Project Safe Childhood Coordinator Carin Duryee in Tucson at 520- 620-7300.

Despite vigorously fighting all aspects of child exploitation, the Department of Justice recognizes that more work remains to be done. To that end, the department’s strategy lays out goals to increase coordination among the nation’s investigators, better train investigators and prosecutors, advance law enforcement’s technological capabilities and enhance research to inform decisions on deterrence, incarceration and monitoring. The strategy also includes a renewed commitment to public awareness and community outreach.

As part of its public outreach efforts, the department today re-launched ProjectSafeChildhood.gov, the Project Safe Childhood (PSC) public website. PSC is a department initiative launched in 2006 that aims to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

For more information regarding the National Strategy to Combat Child Exploitation, Prevention and Interdiction, please visit: www.projectsafechildhood.gov/docs/natstrategyreport.pdf