Distributor of Child Pornography Sentenced to 15 Years in Federal Prison

Defendant Believed to Have Possessed Largest Collection of Child Pornography Prosecuted in the District of Oregon

PORTLAND, OR—U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones today sentenced Dewey S. Burr, 51, of Hillsboro, Oregon, to 15 years in federal prison, to be followed by a life-term of supervised release. As a condition of supervision, the defendant will have to register as a sex offender.

On March 19, 2010, the defendant pled guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography. The investigation stemmed from an undercover investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in June 2009, when an undercover FBI agent in Maryland signed on to a publicly available file sharing program as part of an ongoing child pornography investigation. The agent located an individual using the screen name “Skippy20” who was logged into the same file sharing program. “Skippy20” sent a message to the agent which stated, “Feel free to browse, and take what u like. I do not judge, please do not judge me.” The agent then browsed through “Skippy20’s” shared directories on his computer and observed a number of files depicting images of child pornography, as well as video titles that also appeared to be of child pornography. The agent selected 116 files and proceeded to download copies of them directly from “Skippy20.” A review of the files revealed images of prepubescent children, both male and female, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

“Child pornography records the sexual exploitation and rape of children and those who distribute, collect, and view such images, like the defendant, continue to further victimize these children and actively encourage the illegal market for these images,” noted United States Attorney Dwight C. Holton. “Because of this, my office remains steadfast in its commitment to prosecute these cases to the fullest extent.”

On July 14, 2009, a federal search warrant was executed at defendant’s residence in Hillsboro, Oregon, and agents seized the defendant’s computer and data storage devices. During questioning, Burr admitted that he viewed and traded child pornography on a daily basis and had been collecting images for a very long time. After a forensic review of the defendant’s computer and digital media storage devices, agents estimated the defendant possessed over 1.1 million images of child pornography, including graphic images of male and female prepubescent children, as well as babies and toddlers being sexually abused.

The defendant’s collection of child pornography is believed to be the most extensive collection of child pornography that has been prosecuted through the United States Attorney’s Office in the District of Oregon.

In imposing the sentence, Judge Jones noted that a “very severe sentence” was warranted in this case because the defendant’s “conduct was very severe.”

The case was investigated by the Innocent Images Task Force, an FBI task force made up of federal and state law enforcement agents who investigate individuals who manufacture and traffic in child pornography and those who prey on children on-line. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin, the Deputy Chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Violent Crimes Unit.

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 United States 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.

The Portland FBI’s Innocent Images Task Force includes representatives from the Hillsboro Police Department.