Visalia Couple Sentenced to 21 and 15 Years for Producing Child Pornography

FRESNO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that today United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill sentenced Visalia couple Terry Lee Schneider II, 28, to 21 years in prison and Nicole Jean Schneider, 30, to 15 years in prison for producing child pornography. Both defendants were also both sentenced to 15-year terms of supervised release after their release from custody.

According to court documents, the Schneiders were found to have videotaped a 3-year-old minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in September 2005. Terry Lee Schneider II pleaded guilty on September 30, 2011 and Nicole Jean Schneider pleaded guilty on September 23, 2011. Both have been in federal custody since September 29, 2010.

U.S. Attorney Wagner said: “The production of child pornography is a crime that makes victims of some of the most vulnerable people in society—children. The sentences imposed in this case reflect the seriousness of the crime. In the last year, this office indicted a record number of cases involving child pornography, and we will continue to emphasize the prosecution of child exploitation cases.”

This case was the result of an extensive investigation by the Fresno office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Visalia Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Brian W. Enos and Grant B. Rabenn prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC mobilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.