Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of Ohio
Thursday, July 11, 2013
CONTACT: Fred Alverson
Public Affairs Officer
DAYTON -Charles Edward Suttles, 56, of Dayton has been sentenced to 120 months in prison for viewing sexually explicit images of minor children while he was a patient at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Dayton. Suttles was also sentenced to be under court supervision for the rest of his life.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and Gavin McClaren, Resident Agent in Charge, Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Criminal Investigation Division announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black.
According to court documents, Suttles was a resident of the VA Medical Center in Dayton in July 2010. VA Police, acting in response to a tip, found Suttles viewing child pornography on a computer in a computer lab set up for residents to use to search and apply for jobs. The officer seized a thumb drive that Suttles had plugged into the computer. A forensic analysis of the thumb drive revealed more than 500 images and more than a dozen videos of child pornography.
VA-OIG agents arrested Suttles in January 2013. He has been in custody since his arrest. Suttles pleaded guilty on March 28, 2013 to one count of possession of child pornography.
“Pursuing those who sexually exploit children is a top priority of all law enforcement particularly when it endangers our nation’s veterans and their families," said Gavin McClaren, United States Department of Veterans Affairs - Office of Inspector General, Resident Agent in Charge, Cleveland.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.
U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation by the VA Inspector General’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Dayton VA Medical Center Police who assisted with the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman, who represented the United States in the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
