James Lee Willis, Child Pornography, Indiana 2018

BLOOMINGTON MAN FOUND GUILTY OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES

INDIANAPOLIS – In a significant victory for law enforcement and child protection efforts, a federal jury has found James Lee Willis, 40, of Bloomington, Indiana, guilty of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material. Willis, who was recently convicted in U.S. District Court, faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years for each of the 5 charges related to his downloading activity, and a period of supervision of up to life following his release from prison.

According to court documents and evidence introduced at trial, law enforcement officers first became aware of Willis’s online activity in January 2018, when an IP address that later traced to his house showed downloads of videos and images that depicted minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Some of the files depicted very graphic material of minors under 10 years old being sexually abused and raped by adult men.

In February 2018, law enforcement officers searched Willis’s Bloomington residence and found electronic devices containing evidence that Willis had searched for and downloaded child sexual abuse material over the internet. The digital forensic evidence from the devices again demonstrated Willis’s interest in videos and images of minors as young as 10 years old being sexually abused, including evidence of when Willis downloaded the material and evidence of when he watched it on the devices.

The evidence showed that on dates in January and February 2018, Willis downloaded and watched dozens of files from the internet that contained videos and images of child sexual exploitation. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, a partnership of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies led by the Indiana State Police.

U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers and Herbert J. Stapleton, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office, made the announcement. 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.

Willis faces a prison sentence of a minimum of 5 years, up to 20 years, for each of the 5 charges related to his downloading activity, and from 0 to 20 years for the charge relating to his possession of the material. He also faces a period of supervision of 5 years, up to life, following his release from prison, and must register as a sex offender wherever he lives, works, or goes to school. Actual sentences are determined by a federal district court judge and are typically less than the maximum penalties.

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