League City Man Sentenced to Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

Court Orders Defendant Register as Sex Offender and Serve a Life Term of Supervised Release

HOUSTON—Michael Simeon Sadowski, 51, a League City resident, has been sentenced to 97 months in federal prison without parole, was ordered to register as a sex offender, and must serve a life-term of supervised release for possessing child pornography, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today. U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison handed down the sentence a hearing today.

Sadowski’s conviction is the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspectors Service (USPIS), members of the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the League City Police Department which began in August 2009. At that time, Sadowski responded to an e-mail from someone who purported to trade in child pornography requesting that a flyer offering the opportunity to purchase “exotic and special interest” videos via catalog be sent to him in a different format. The “someone” was actually an undercover postal inspector. On Aug. 21, 2009, Sadowski sent an e-mail to the undercover inspector asking that a detailed catalog be sent to him. The catalog, which was sent to him as requested, described videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct and included an order form, the price for one video ($15) and instructions regarding how to send payment to an undercover mailing address.

Correspondence between the postal inspector and Sadowski continued between Aug. 20, 2009, and Sept. 15, 2009. On Sept. 1, 2009, the postal inspector received via the U.S. Mail at his undercover address a handwritten letter from Sadowski ordering seven videos. Sadowski’s order request included $116.00 in the form of U.S. currency. Sadowski provided his name and home address in League City, Texas, as the address to which the child pornography videos he ordered should be shipped. On Oct. 1, 2009, the seven DVDs were delivered to Sadowski.

On Oct. 8, 2010, USPIS inspectors, FBI agents, Houston Metro ICAC members and the League City Police Department executed a federal search warrant at Sadowski’s residence. Sadowski was alone at his residence at the time and admitted to ordering and paying for the seven DVDs containing child pornography that were delivered to him. The DVDs were found in a wicker chest in the living room; the shipping packaging was also found. Sadowski also told officers they would find child pornography images and videos on his desktop computer and that the links would be on his desktop.

Investigating officers seized one desktop computer, more than 500 CDs, DVDs, and video tapes, as well as three video cameras, one digital camera, one pair of binoculars, one Bushnell Digital Imaging Scope, and approximately 67 8 ½ ” x 11” photographs depicting child pornography and/or child erotica. Several of the photos were from the LS series and BD series which are known to contain child pornography and child erotica.

Sadowski had a video camera on a tri-pod facing out the window on the front of his house which he used to videotape underage girls outside his house and at public events. A forensic analysis of his computer resulted in the discovery of more than 1000 images and hundreds of videos of child pornography, including images with prepubescent minors and the sexual penetration of those minors by adult males.

Sadowski was arrested on Oct. 8, 2009, and has been in federal custody without bond since then. He will remain in custody to serve his sentence. During his life-term of supervised release, Sadowski is required to comply with a number of special conditions designed to protect children and prohibit the use of the Internet including registration as a sex offender. Failure to abide by any of the conditions imposed can result in a revocation of the supervised release term and a 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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Stabe prosecuted the case.