Kansas City, Mo. – Eric Lee Bederson, a 37-year-old former California prison inmate, has been sentenced to 42 years in federal prison without parole for using a smuggled cell phone to distribute child pornography over the Internet.
Bederson, who was serving a 16-year state sentence in California for the aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, and abusive sexual conduct of a minor, pleaded guilty on Aug. 12, 2014, to two counts of distributing child pornography.
According to court documents, Bederson molested at least 20 children and was arrested following an investigation into suspicions that he was molesting multiple children and possessing child pornography. A civil lawsuit resulted in a judgment of more than $10 million in damages.
While incarcerated, Bederson used smuggled cell phones to distribute numerous images and videos of child pornography. He amassed upwards of 40 gigabytes of images and videos in his multiple e-mail accounts, which he used to actively trade, receive, and distribute to others – including an undercover federal agent based in Kansas City, Mo.
Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 8, 2011, Bederson sent six e-mails to an undercover agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which included a total of 164 images and 10 videos of child pornography.
Bederson admitted that his e-mail accounts contained multiple gigabytes of e-mails and attachments of child pornography. He sent the child pornography with the hope and expectation that the undercover HSI agent (and others) would reciprocate in sending child pornography back to him in return.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Daly. It was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the California State Prison security office.
Bederson’s sentence is a result of his heinous crimes, which have caused immeasurable harm to the victims and their families. The Western District of Missouri will continue to work tirelessly to bring perpetrators of child pornography to justice.
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