Georgia Man Pleads Guilty to Child Porn

A 34-year-old man from Savannah, Georgia, has pleaded guilty to sending a notice over the Internet offering to produce and receive child pornography.

Stephen Joseph Woods was arrested on November 2, 2012, and has been in custody ever since. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, up to 30 years in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release.

According to court documents, during October and November 2012, multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, conducted operations in which officers worked undercover on the Internet to target individuals seeking to have sex with minor children.

Woods responded to an online notice posted by an undercover detective, who was posing as the relative of a 14-year-old female. Over the next two weeks, Woods engaged in online conversations with the detective, discussing his desire to have sex with the child and offering to produce videos of the child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The conversations culminated with Woods agreeing to meet the detective at a motel in St. Augustine on November 2, 2012. On the evening of their agreed meeting, Woods was arrested by law enforcement officers.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The case was investigated by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, the Volusia County Sheriffs’ Office, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

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