June 8, 12

NEWS / Four More Defendants Plead Guilty in Indiana to Participating in International Child Pornography Dis

A Total of Nine Defendants Prosecuted in Indiana to Date as a Result of “Operation Bulldog”

WASHINGTON – Four men have pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Indiana for their participation in an international child pornography distribution ring, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler of the Southern District of Indiana announced today.

The guilty pleas were entered yesterday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis and are the result of “Operation Bulldog,” a multi-jurisdictional effort to dismantle and prosecute the members of the international child pornography distribution ring. A total of nine defendants have been prosecuted in the Southern District of Indiana for their participation in the group.

“This operation uncovered a dangerous and depraved group of criminals who were devoted to trading sexually explicit images of children under the age of five,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “As a result of our investigation and prosecution, seven members of the group – including three of the four men who pleaded guilty yesterday – are now serving lengthy prison terms, and two others are awaiting sentencing. Child pornography rings pose a threat to children around the world, and we will continue to aggressively pursue those who participate in such groups.”

“I applaud the work of the investigators and prosecutors on this case, who took a search warrant in Bloomington and successfully brought to justice defendants from all over the world,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Minkler. “More importantly, as a result of this 18 month operation, more than two dozen children here in Indiana and across the globe have been rescued from their tormentors.”

Shaun Kuykendall, 32, of South Carolina; Richard Szulborski, 21, of Pennsylvania; Javahn Algere, 23, of Louisiana; and Jeremy Labrec, 22, of Texas, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson. In addition, Kuykendall was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Szulborski was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Algere was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Labrec will be sentenced at a later date.

On Nov. 17, 2010, the FBI and state and local law enforcement partners executed a federal search warrant at David Bostic’s residence in Bloomington, Ind. Investigators determined that Bostic, 26, possessed hundreds of images and videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit acts, and that he had actively distributed this child pornography to other individuals through various means. According to court documents, investigators also discovered that Bostic had produced child pornography on multiple occasions over the previous two years, creating sexually explicit images of four minor females, all of whom were between the ages of two months and three years, as well as a minor male who was four years old. Evidence gathered at the scene demonstrated that Bostic had distributed the images of child pornography he produced to multiple individuals.

Bostic was arrested Nov. 17, 2010, and pleaded guilty to multiple charges in June 2011. He was sentenced on Nov. 22, 2011, to 315 years in prison, one of the longest sentences in Southern District of Indiana.

Following Bostic’s arrest, a review of the evidence determined that Bostic was a member of a large group of individuals trading sexually explicit images of children, primarily focused on child pornography depicting children under five years of age.

According to court documents, some of the images produced by Bostic depicting Indiana children were distributed among the members of the group. Within days of Bostic’s arrest, Operation Bulldog was launched to identify and apprehend the members of the group. Since then, more than 20 members of the group have been apprehended in the United States and abroad. WASHINGTON – Four men have pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Indiana for their participation in an international child pornography distribution ring, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler of the Southern District of Indiana announced today.

The guilty pleas were entered yesterday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis and are the result of “Operation Bulldog,” a multi-jurisdictional effort to dismantle and prosecute the members of the international child pornography distribution ring. A total of nine defendants have been prosecuted in the Southern District of Indiana for their participation in the group.

“This operation uncovered a dangerous and depraved group of criminals who were devoted to trading sexually explicit images of children under the age of five,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “As a result of our investigation and prosecution, seven members of the group – including three of the four men who pleaded guilty yesterday – are now serving lengthy prison terms, and two others are awaiting sentencing. Child pornography rings pose a threat to children around the world, and we will continue to aggressively pursue those who participate in such groups.”

“I applaud the work of the investigators and prosecutors on this case, who took a search warrant in Bloomington and successfully brought to justice defendants from all over the world,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Minkler. “More importantly, as a result of this 18 month operation, more than two dozen children here in Indiana and across the globe have been rescued from their tormentors.”

Shaun Kuykendall, 32, of South Carolina; Richard Szulborski, 21, of Pennsylvania; Javahn Algere, 23, of Louisiana; and Jeremy Labrec, 22, of Texas, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson. In addition, Kuykendall was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Szulborski was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Algere was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Labrec will be sentenced at a later date.

On Nov. 17, 2010, the FBI and state and local law enforcement partners executed a federal search warrant at David Bostic’s residence in Bloomington, Ind. Investigators determined that Bostic, 26, possessed hundreds of images and videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit acts, and that he had actively distributed this child pornography to other individuals through various means. According to court documents, investigators also discovered that Bostic had produced child pornography on multiple occasions over the previous two years, creating sexually explicit images of four minor females, all of whom were between the ages of two months and three years, as well as a minor male who was four years old. Evidence gathered at the scene demonstrated that Bostic had distributed the images of child pornography he produced to multiple individuals.

Bostic was arrested Nov. 17, 2010, and pleaded guilty to multiple charges in June 2011. He was sentenced on Nov. 22, 2011, to 315 years in prison, one of the longest sentences in Southern District of Indiana.

Following Bostic’s arrest, a review of the evidence determined that Bostic was a member of a large group of individuals trading sexually explicit images of children, primarily focused on child pornography depicting children under five years of age.

According to court documents, some of the images produced by Bostic depicting Indiana children were distributed among the members of the group. Within days of Bostic’s arrest, Operation Bulldog was launched to identify and apprehend the members of the group. Since then, more than 20 members of the group have been apprehended in the United States and abroad.

In addition to Bostic, Kuykendall, Szulborski, Algere and Labrec, the following defendants have pleaded guilty in the Southern District of Indiana: Danny L. Druck, 58, of Kentucky; Chris Reid, 37, of Michigan; Todd King, 41, of California. Reid was sentenced to 35 years in prison and Druck and King were each sentenced to eight years in prison. A plea agreement for another charged defendant, Nicholas King, 28, of Washington, has been filed in the Southern District of Indiana.

Additional defendants were identified in the course of this investigation and have been referred to federal prosecutors and law enforcement agencies in other districts across the country and around the world, including Sweden, Serbia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

A total of more than two dozen children have been rescued as a result of Operation Bulldog. Efforts to identify additional defendants and victims in the United States and abroad are active and ongoing.

This case was investigated by the FBI, with local assistance from the Indiana State Police, the Kokomo, Ind., Police Department and the Brownsburg, Ind., Police Department.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Brant Cook of the Southern District of Indiana and Trial Attorney Michael Grant of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

The defendants sentenced were ordered to register as sex offenders and were sentenced to supervised release at the end of their prison term.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/June/12-crm-729.html

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