Jury Convicts Chesapeake Man of Child Pornography Offenses

 NORFOLK, Va. – A federal jury convicted a Chesapeake man yesterday on charges of attempted receipt of child pornography and access with intent to view child pornography.

“The jury’s verdict holds the defendant accountable for his inexplicable decision to engage in this serious conduct while on supervised release and notwithstanding his prior federal conviction involving the receipt of child pornography,” said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Our Office expresses its gratitude to the trial team and the FBI for their thorough investigative efforts, which helped secure this conviction.”

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, in 2011 in the Eastern District of Virginia, Curtis Culbertson, 63, pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography and was sentenced to 90 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. While on supervised release in 2017, Culbertson began living and working in Chesapeake. Within days of starting his job, Culbertson began using an unmonitored work computer to search for and access with intent to view child sexual abuse material.

Culbertson faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison when sentenced on January 6, 2022. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Brian Dugan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, made the announcement after Senior U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar accepted the verdict.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Yusi and Megan Montoya are prosecuting the case.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Norfolk Child Exploitation Task Force, which is composed of FBI agents and detectives from the Chesapeake Police Department, Hampton Police Division, and Newport News Police Department. Assistance in this matter was also provided by federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children. Tips regarding child exploitation can be provided to the task force at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the 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.justice.gov/psc.