BOISE - Neal G. Tilton, 40, of Boise, was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court to 180 months in prison followed by 10 years supervised release, for distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced. The sentence was imposed by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Lodge. Tilton pleaded guilty on April 12, 2018.
According to court records, in August 2017, an investigator in Texas was monitoring a chat room where images of child pornography were being traded. An individual from Idaho, later identified as Tilton, posted a link to an online storage account containing images of child pornography. The investigation was referred to the Boise Police Department (BPD). U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale signed a search warrant for the online storage account and an associated e-mail account, and the BPD detective identified the accounts as belonging to Tilton and containing child pornography. The e-mail account also contained evidence that Tilton was acting as the administrator of the chat room, had created rules for access and involvement in the child pornography trading chat room, and was trading images of child pornography via e-mail.
The BPD detective also discovered that Tilton had recently been arrested for leaving the scene of an accident and driving under the influence. Tilton had left his wallet and his cell phone in the vehicle after fleeing the scene of the accident. Judge Dale signed a search warrant for the cell phone, and the BPD detective discovered the phone contained additional evidence of the distribution of child pornography, including numerous images of child pornography.
The case was investigated by the Boise Police Department, and was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 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."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
