Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of Illinois
Friday, March 21, 2014
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A resident of Panama, who was living illegally in the United States, in Glen Carbon, Illinois, was sentenced on March 21, 2014, on a three-count Indictment, charging him with Receipt of Visual Depictions of Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct (Count 1), Possession of Visual Depictions of Minors Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct (Count 2), and Possession of a Counterfeit Alien Registration Card, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today. Jean Paul Jimenez-Kuchler, 30, Panama City, Panama, was sentenced to a concurrent terms of 84 months in federal prison on each count, concurrent terms of supervised release of five years on Counts 1 and 2 and three years on Count 3, fined $300, and ordered to pay a $300 special assessment. In addition, upon his release from prison, Jimenez-Kuchler will be deported to Panama.
The investigation began on June 6, 2013, when a federal search warrant was executed at Jimenez-Kuchler’s residence in Glen Carbon, after local agents with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), were informed that an IP address registered to Jimenez-Kuchler’s address was captured while trying to access an online bulletin board that had, as its primary purpose, the sexual exploitation of minors, primarily prepubescent minors.
Agents seized two hard drives from Jimenez-Kuchler’s bedroom. Jimenez-Kuchler admitted that the hard drives belonged to him. One of the hard drives contained at least five video files, four of which exceeded five minutes in length, of prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit behavior. The other hard drive contained approximately 4,349 image and/or video files of minors engaged in sexually explicit behavior, many of which depicted prepubescent minors or minors who had not attained 12 years of age (Count 2). The analysis also revealed that two of the videos depicting images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were downloaded and received by Jimenez-Kuchler on or about June 5, 2013 (Count 1).
Jimenez-Kuchler admitted that he was a citizen of Panama City, Panama, who was present in the United States illegally. He also admitted accessing the child pornography bulletin board that had, as its primary purpose, the sexual exploitation of minors, which was the basis of the federal search warrant.
An alien registration receipt card was also recovered from Jimenez-Kuchler. During his interview, Jimenez-Kuchler admitted that the alien registration card was counterfeit, stating that he obtained it approximately five years prior so that he would be eligible for employment in the United States. Jimenez also admitted being in the United States illegally since after 2001 when his “visitor for pleasure" card expired, and that he knew that the alien registration card found in his possession was fake (Count 3).
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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources."
The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations. The case is assigned to Assistant United States Attorney Angela Scott.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
