Acting United States Attorney April M. Leon has announced that U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles sentenced James S. Burland, a 70-year-old resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to 57 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography. After completing his prison sentence, Burland will be required to serve five years of supervised release. In addition, the court ordered Burland to pay a $5,000 special assessment in accordance with the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act and mandated that he register as a sex offender upon his release.
In the court's announcement of the sentence, Judge deGravelles described Burland's possession of 565 images of child pornography, including images depicting prepubescent minors and minors under the age of 12, as "serious and troubling conduct."
Admissions made during the plea indicate that on November 11, 2022, Burland uploaded an image of child pornography to his internet-based cloud storage account. Further investigation revealed that between that date and April 9, 2024, Burland possessed at least 173 additional files containing images of child pornography in his internet-based cloud storage account and on some of his personal computers and storage devices.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - Homeland Security Investigations, Louisiana Bureau of Investigation, and the Office of the Attorney General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Paul L. Pugliese.
This case is 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. The project aims to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.
