A notorious case of child exploitation has come to a close as James Parkhurst, a 57-year-old former pastor from Portland, Oregon, was sentenced to serve 135 months in prison for transporting child pornography.
According to court filings, Parkhurst traveled to Colorado in August 2010 and produced images of child pornography, which he then transported to his home in Michigan.
Parkhurst’s guilty plea was made on November 16, 2017, to one count of transportation of child pornography. He also admitted to taking three trips, including the one to Colorado in August 2010, where he took photographs of nude minors who were in his care.
A forensic examination of the electronic devices seized from Parkhurst’s Oregon residence in 2016 revealed hundreds of thousands of images and over 3,500 videos of minors in various stages of undress, including minors posed in sexually suggestive and erotic poses saved on the defendant’s computer and external hard drives.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this case with assistance from the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Oregon also provided assistance in the investigation.
This case was prosecuted by CEOS Trial Attorney Lauren S. Kupersmith and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alecia L. Riewerts of the District of Colorado.
Parkhurst was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Marcia S. Krieger to serve 15 years of supervised release following his prison sentence.
Key Facts
- State: Colorado
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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