Allen LeRoy Simons III, 36, of El Paso County, Colorado, is behind bars for 17 years after being caught trading thousands of child pornography images while hiding his crimes with a PlayStation 3. Sentenced on January 25, 2017, by U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez, Simons received 204 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography, followed by 30 years of supervised release. The sentence marks a hard fall for a man who exploited technology and probation loopholes to fuel a years-long obsession.
Simons’ criminal past caught up with him when federal authorities discovered he had amassed more than 10,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse. According to court documents, he traded these files via email and openly discussed the graphic sexual abuse of children with others who shared his deviance. At the time of his federal indictment on May 3, 2016, Simons was already on state probation for a prior conviction of sexual exploitation of a child—a fact that intensified the court’s scrutiny and ultimate punishment.
Judge Martinez handed down the stiff sentence due to the sheer volume of material, the duration of Simons’ criminal activity, and his deliberate efforts to conceal his actions. The defendant used a PlayStation 3 to access the internet, believing the outdated console would fly under law enforcement’s radar. It didn’t. The device became a central piece of evidence, exposing how Simons traded child pornography with like-minded predators while evading detection by state probation officers.
Though sentenced to 204 months, Simons received a 36-month credit for time already served in the Colorado Department of Corrections, reducing his federal prison term to 168 months—14 years. But the court made clear: his debt doesn’t end there. He was ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution to victims whose images were distributed by him, a rare but crucial acknowledgment of the human toll behind digital crimes.
The investigation was a joint operation between the Colorado Springs Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Denver. Lieutenant Christina Shepard, ICAC Commander, stood alongside Acting Special Agent in Charge John Eisert and Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer in announcing the takedown, underscoring the multi-agency effort needed to dismantle such hidden networks of abuse.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Valeria Spencer prosecuted the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a federal initiative targeting online child exploitation. With predators increasingly using technology to hide, cases like Simons’ reveal the grim reality: even a gaming console can become a weapon. The message from federal courts is clear—no hiding place is safe, no delay permanent, and no offender immune from justice.
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Key Facts
- State: Colorado
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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