Architect Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

HOUSTON—John Robert Dossey, 62, a Houston area architect, has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today.

Dossey pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge David Hittner, who accepted the guilty plea, convicted Dossey of possessing child pornography and set sentencing for Oct. 12, 2010. Dossey has been and will remain in federal custody without bond since his arrest in March of 2010. The federal charges brought against Dossey are the result of an investigation by the FBI’s Innocence Lost Task Force which includes members of both the FBI and the Houston Police Department.

At today’s hearing, Dossey admitted to taking sexually charged photographs of 16-year-old girls, some of which are pornographic under federal law. Search warrants executed at Dossey’s home and office in March 2009 resulted in the seizure of computers. A forensic analysis of the computers by FBI’s Houston Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory found pornographic photographs of one of the minor girls.

Dossey faces a sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment for the possession of child pornography and a maximum fine of $250,000 as well as up to a maximum of life on supervised release during which the court can impose a number of special conditions designed to protect children including registration as a sex offender.

This case 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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, statem and local resources to better locate, apprehendm 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.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sherri L. Zack.