Ismail J. Ramsey, U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California
Dale Jetton, a resident of San Francisco, has been sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison for the distribution of child pornography, a move announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Robbins and Special Agent in Charge Tatum King of Homeland Security Investigations. The sentence, delivered by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Chen, involves a 180-month term.
Jetton pleaded guilty on August 22, 2024, to the charge, violating 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2). His legal troubles began when he was indicted by a federal grand jury on August 29, 2023. According to the plea agreement, Jetton engaged in email exchanges starting in March 2023 with an undercover law enforcement officer. He revealed a link to a cloud service, alleging it contained over 700 megabytes of child exploitation materials, including 38 videos depicting minors in sexually explicit situations. Jetton, a registered sex offender, acknowledged that the videos depicted prepubescent minors, including a video featuring a child subjected to sexual bondage.
In custody since 2023, Jetton will begin his prison sentence immediately, followed by 15 years of supervised release as ordered by Judge Chen.
Assistant United States Attorneys Roland Chang and Sophia Cooper are prosecuting the case. The investigation, which led to Jetton’s prosecution, was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the San Francisco Police Department.
