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United States Attorney’s Office ALEXANDRIA NEWPORT NEWS NORFOLK RICHMOND UNITED STATES ATTORNEY CHUCK ROSENBERG |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jim Rybicki
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July 13, 2007 |
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(Alexandria, VA) – Two individuals were sentenced today in United States District Court in unrelated Project Safe Childhood cases. James Paul Lukinoff, age 53, of Gaston, South Carolina, was sentenced by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton to 10 years in prison for the attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. Douglas Eugene Cokenour, age 31, of Alexandria, Virginia, was sentenced to 41 months in prison by United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema for possessing multiple computer images of child pornography. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office, made the announcement following this morning’s sentencings.
Lukinoff also was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release, which will commence following his prison term. Cokenour also was sentenced to 15 years of supervised release, which will commence following his prison term. Both will be required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction in which they live or work.
According to court documents, Lukinoff, using the screen name “Trucking01145,” conducted Internet “chat” sessions in which he solicited sex from someone he believed to be a 13 year old girl. Lukinoff then traveled to Falls Church, Virginia to meet the girl for illegal sex. In actuality, the girl Lukinoff had enticed was an undercover agent with the FBI. Lukinoff was arrested upon his arrival in Virginia in March 2007, and has been in federal custody since then.
According to court documents, FBI agents executing a search warrant on Cokenour’s Alexandria residence seized a computer and floppy disks found to contain graphic images of child pornography, including depictions of children as young as infants engaged in sexual activity with adult males. Cokenour informed the agents that he had downloaded these images from Yahoo! chat rooms.
In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys 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 http://www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Both investigations were conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The Lukinoff case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ed Power. The Cokenour case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Edward J. McAndrew, who is on detail from the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice.