Samuel Franklin Crews, Receiving Child Pornography, Florida 2013

A shocking case of child exploitation has come to light in Florida, with Samuel Franklin Crews, a 31-year-old man from Lake City, facing federal charges for receiving child pornography over the internet.

The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury in Jacksonville, charges Crews with three counts of receiving child pornography. The charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of not less than 5 years, up to 20 years in federal prison, with a potential life term of supervised release.

Crews was arrested on December 31, 2013, in Lake City and has been ordered detained pending his trial in March 2014. The indictment alleges that between April 28, 2013, and April 30, 2013, in the Middle District of Florida, Crews knowingly received visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct over the internet.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

This case is another example of the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and it is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab ‘resources.’

For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab ‘resources.’

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