District Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

WASHINGTON—Keith Dietterle, 28, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to a federal charge of possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr.; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

Dietterle, a former intelligence analyst at the FBI, entered the guilty plea in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Honorable Amy Berman Jackson is to sentence him on June 27, 2013. Dietterle faces a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment as well as a fine of $250,000. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he faces a likely sentencing range of 97 to 121 months in prison.

According to the government’s evidence, on November 7, 2013, Dietterle contacted a man he believed to be the father of an underaged girl on a social networking site. That man turned out to be an undercover officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. Over the next several days, Dietterle engaged in online e-mail and instant message conversations with the undercover officer.

During this period of time, Dietterle sent the undercover officer three images of child pornography that depicted, among other things, adult men engaged in sexual acts with children. In addition, Dietterle sent the undercover officer various links to videos depicting graphic child pornography. Dietterle was arrested on November 23, 2012, and has been in custody ever since.

This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director Parlave and Chief Lanier praised the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. They also commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julieanne Himelstein and Ari Redbord, who are prosecuting the case.