Wylie Man Jesse McQuade Gets 97 Months for Child Porn Crimes

A 40-year-old man from Wylie, Texas, has been locked up for nearly eight years after being caught with a digital archive of child pornography, including disturbing images of prepubescent minors and violent sexual acts. Jesse McQuade was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison today in the Eastern District of Texas, following his guilty plea on September 13, 2016, to possession of child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant handed down the sentence after evidence revealed McQuade had knowingly stored illegal material on a 1TB hard drive found during a federal raid. The bust came after an undercover agent traced the distribution of child sexual abuse material on a peer-to-peer network back to an IP address registered at McQuade’s Wylie residence in April 2016.

On August 9, 2016, law enforcement executed a search warrant at McQuade’s home. Agents seized multiple digital devices, including the hard drive containing hundreds of illicit files. McQuade admitted to investigators that he was aware the content was child pornography and had been actively downloading and saving the material for some time.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Miller as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat the surge in online child exploitation. The program strengthens coordination between federal, state, and local agencies to track down offenders and rescue victims.

Investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with critical support from the Plano Police Department and the Wylie Police Department. Authorities emphasized that the discovery of files depicting sadistic and masochistic conduct elevated the severity of the charges and sentencing.

McQuade will begin serving his 97-month sentence immediately and will face supervised release and mandatory registration as a sex offender upon completion of his prison term. For more on Project Safe Childhood, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.