Tennessee Man Guilty of Child Pornography Charges

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal jury has convicted Brian K. Hendrix, 42, of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, of child pornography charges related to his participation in a global child exploitation ring. Hendrix was found guilty of coercing and enticing minors, as young as eight years old, to engage in sexually explicit conduct on web camera.

According to court records, co-conspirators created false profiles on social networking sites, such as YouTube, that portrayed them as young teenagers. They used these profiles to lure children to the websites they controlled. Once on the conspirators’ websites, the conspirators played pre-recorded videos of prior minor victims, often engaging in sexually explicit conduct, to make the new victims think that they were chatting with another minor.

The investigation, named Operation Subterfuge, identified over 1,600 minors who were lured to the websites. More than 300 minor victims were identified in the United States, and 43 minor victims were identified in Canada.

Hendrix faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison when sentenced on April 8, 2016.

In addition to Hendrix, eight other co-conspirators have been convicted and sentenced. Anthony Evans, 54, of Grahamstown, South Africa, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison on May 29, 2015. William J. Morgan, 36, of Essex, New York, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 21 years in prison on Sept. 18, 2015. Milton Smith, Jr., 34, of Lorton, Virginia, pleaded guilty and sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 22, 2016. James E. Hancock, 45, of Thomasville, Georgia, pleaded guilty and sentencing is scheduled for April 1, 2016. Christopher McNevin, 37, of Carlisle, Ohio, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 19 years in prison on Dec. 4, 2015. Carl Zwengel, 51, of Princeton, Illinois, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Oct. 2, 2015. Karlo Hitosis, 32, of Bronx, New York, pleaded guilty and sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2016. Stephen Funk, 35, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty and sentencing is scheduled for March 25, 2016.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick and Trial Attorney Lauren Britsch of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, praised the efforts of the FBI Violent Crimes Against Children Section and the RCMP National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre for their work on the case.

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