NORFOLK, Va. - Michael Thomas Sechrist, 45, of Norfolk, Va., was sentenced today to 327months in prison, followed by 300 months of supervised release, for production of child pornography.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen.
Sechrist pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography on April 3, 2013. According to court documents and other public information, Sechrist was initially identified when a visitor to his home found a surreptitiously placed thumb drive that was found to contain images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. While some of those images came from the Internet, others were produced by Sechrist of a prepubescent female minor in the Tidewater area.
This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the Norfolk Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth M. Yusi prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
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 (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
