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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Information, Wednesday, September 5, 2007
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Washington, D.C. - A 51-year-old Cedarville, Illinois man, Allen G. Love, has pled guilty to the charge of Transporting Material Involving Child Pornography, and admitted to possessing material involving child pornography, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.
Love entered his guilty plea yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Reggie B. Walton. The defendant faces a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on December 7, 2007. Love will be subject to enhanced penalties (1) because some of the images of child pornography he possessed and distributed involved prepubescent minors or minors who had not attained the age of 12 years; and (2) because some of the images and video clips that he possessed and distributed portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.
The government’s investigation revealed that on October 19, 2006, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Detective Timothy Palchak went on-line acting in an undercover capacity as part of a multi-jurisdictional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. While on-line, Detective Palchak corresponded with the defendant in what is known to be a chat room about incest. After the initial correspondence in the incest chat room, the defendant initiated private on-line correspondence with Detective Palchak. This private on-line correspondence continued intermittently from October 19, 2006, until December 14, 2006. During the on-line chats, the defendant asked Detective Palchak to bring his 10-year -old daughter to Chicago so the defendant could have sex with her. The defendant also sent via the internet images and videos of children under the age of ten engaged in sexually explicit conduct. These images were received by Detective Palchak in Washington, D.C. One of the videos depicted a sobbing prepubescent child being forcibly raped by an adult male. The images and movie clips received were analyzed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which resulted in two of the images being identified as known juvenile, that is, under the age of 18, victims of child sexual abuse.
On January 25, 2007, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the assistance of the Stephenson County Sheriff’s Department, executed a search warrant at the defendant’s home in Cedarville, Illinois. Five computers were seized during the execution of the search warrant.
Love admitted to chatting on-line with people in incest chat rooms, and he admitted to trading images of child pornography with people whom he met on-line. Over 600 images of child pornography were found on Love’s various computers. These images were analyzed by the NCMEC, which resulted in over 245 of the images being identified as images of known juvenile victims of child sexual abuse.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. 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 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.projectsafechildhood.gov/.
In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the outstanding investigative work of MPD Detective Timothy Palchak, who conducted the undercover portion of this case. He also recognized the following members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force who provided investigative support: MPD Detectives Jonathan Andrews and Miguel Miranda, and FBI Agents Jill Blackman, Chad Gallagher, and Scott Scheible. He also recognized the Chicago Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Stephenson County, Illinois Sheriff’s Department, whose members assisted with the defendant’s arrest and the execution of the search warrant, and Melissa Stroebel of the NCMEC, who tirelessly reviewed the images sent and possessed by the defendant. He also praised the work of Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Connelly, who investigated and prosecuted the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica Mallory of the Northern District of Illinois, who was instrumental in assisting with the Illinois-based aspects of the case.