Alabama Man Pleads Guilty to Production of Child Pornography

WASHINGTON – An Alabama man who was employed as a security officer in the Birmingham, Ala., City Schools system pleaded guilty today to one count of production of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce White Vance, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Northern District of Alabama FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Maley and Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper.

Michael Wayne Wooten, 60, of Alabaster, Ala., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Inge P. Johnson in the Northern District of Alabama. 

According to court documents and proceedings, between August 2009 and April 2010, Wooten, while employed as a security officer for the Birmingham City Schools system, used an office at Dupuy Elementary School to take modeling photos of numerous minor girls.  A search of Wooten’s residence yielded multiple computers containing child pornography images, including images produced by Wooten depicting several victims, between four and nine years of age, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Wooten faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, as well as the possibility of lifetime supervised release.  Wooten also faces a fine of $250,000. 

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Birmingham Police Department.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Fortune of the Northern District of Alabama and Trial Attorney Jeffrey H. Zeeman of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.