Month: April 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Defendant Posed as Young Girl to Target Victim

            WASHINGTON –Christopher Young, 31, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 26 years in prison on one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and second-degree child sexual abuse for abusing a minor child, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Young pleaded guilty on Aug. 23, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. In addition to the prison term, the Honorable Amit P. Mehta ordered 15 years of supervised release and ordered Young to register as a sex offender.

            According to court documents, Young used a messaging application to reach out to a 10-year old child in June 2019 pretending to be a young girl. In the messages that Young exchanged with the victim, he blackmailed her for the purpose of sexually abusing her. While pretending to be a young girl, Young messaged the victim, stating that if the victim did not engage in sexual acts with Young, embarrassing photographs of the victim would be disseminated to the victim’s family. Young also photographed his sexual abuse of the victim. One of these photographs was recovered from Young’s e-mail account.

            The victim reported the abuse to her mother and Young was arrested on July 23, 2019. He has been in custody since his arrest.

            This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force is composed of FBI agents, along with other federal agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children and those engaged in human trafficking.

            This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

            In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Graves, Special Agent in Charge Jacobs, and Chief Contee commended the work of those who investigated the case from FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, as well as the MPD’s Narcotics and Special Investigation Division, Human Trafficking Unit.  They also expressed appreciation for the efforts of those who handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialist Alexis Spencer-Anderson, Victim/Witness Advocate Yvonne Bryant, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Janani Iyengar.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

            WASHINGTON – Jacob David Dockter, 28, of Taft, California, was sentenced today to 140 months in prison for distribution of child pornography, followed by 120 months of supervised release.

            On May 28, 2020, a law enforcement officer was acting in an undercover capacity as part of the Metropolitan Police Department-Federal Bureau of Investigation (“MPD-FBI”) Child Exploitation Task Force, operating out of a satellite office in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, the undercover officer entered a private online group devoted to the receipt and distribution of child sexual abuse material. Dockter began communicating with the undercover officer via private message on the online platform. Dockter told the undercover officer that he was a 25-year-old man from Southern California and that he had access to a two-year-old female relative. He told the undercover officer that he had taken nude images of this two-year-old relative in the past. Dockter then sent the undercover officer multiple live nude photos of the child, as well as one sexually explicit image.

            This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

            In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Special Agent in Charge Wayne A. Jacobs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation commended the work of those who worked on the case from the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD’s Youth Investigations Division. They also expressed appreciation to those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorneys Caroline Burrell and April Russo, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen E. Stauss, and Paralegal Specialist Alexis Spencer-Anderson.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Justice Department today commemorates International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day that celebrates and lifts up the accomplishments of transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people throughout the United States.  

“International Transgender Day of Visibility is an important opportunity to reaffirm that transgender people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and to live free from discrimination, violence, and threats of violence,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Protecting the civil rights of everyone in our country was the Justice Department’s founding purpose, and it remains our urgent charge.”

Yesterday, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division joined with the FBI and the Community Relations Service (CRS) to host a webinar ahead of International Transgender Day of Visibility.

“Members of the LGBTQI+ community must be able to live free of discrimination, harassment, violence, and threats of violence,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke. “That is why the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has been using every tool in our arsenal to protect the civil rights of LGBTQI+ community members.”

“We want to make it clear that the FBI does not tolerate violence against any members of our communities for any reason,” said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Aaron Tapp. “We will continue to work tirelessly to protect the LGBTQI+ community and the American people, and to uphold the Constitution of the United States.”

“As America’s Peacemaker, the CRS provides facilitation, mediation, training, and consultation services to help communities prevent and resolve future conflicts,” said CRS Director Paul Monteiro. “And we work with our Justice Department partners to connect federal, state, and local law enforcement with community members in order to build trust, restore respect, and create inclusive and equitable communities for all.”

The Civil Rights Division has used its civil and criminal authorities to enforce laws that guarantee the right of transgender people to live in our communities free from discrimination and threats and acts of violence. For example:

• The division issued a letter to all state attorneys general reminding them of federal constitutional and statutory provisions that protect transgender youth against discrimination, including when those youth seek gender-affirming care.
• The division has also filed statements of interest and amicus briefs in several cases involving the civil and constitutional rights of transgender people, including in Kluge v. Brownsburg Community School Corp. (7th Cir.), Brandt v. Rutledge (8th Cir.), and Corbitt v. Taylor (11th Cir.).
• The division is also challenging Alabama’s Senate Bill 184 (2022), a statute which has been preliminary enjoined by a federal district court, that criminalizes certain forms of gender affirming medical care for transgender minors but allows that same care when cisgender minors seek it.
• The division, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, continues to use federal civil rights laws to secure indictments and convictions in federal hate crimes cases charging defendants for assaulting transgender victims because of their gender identity.

Additional information about the Civil Rights Division’s work to uphold and protect the civil and constitutional rights of LGBTQI+ individuals is available online at www.justice.gov/crt/lgbtqi-working-group. Complaints about discriminatory practices may be reported to the Civil Rights Division through its internet reporting portal at www.civilrights.justice.gov.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Memphis, TN – Davione Smith, 21, of Memphis, has been sentenced to 135 months in federal prison for distributing approximately 2 kilograms of fentanyl. United States Attorney Kevin Ritz announced the sentence today.

According to United States Attorney Ritz and information presented in court, Smith distributed fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine around Memphis. Investigators identified at least eight individuals who purchased narcotics from Smith for the purpose of re-distribution.

In May 2022, Smith along with the co-defendants were indicted.

Smith pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl.

Today, United States District Judge Thomas L. Parker sentenced Smith to 135 months imprisonment to be followed by five years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

This prosecution is part of an investigation conducted by the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). OCDETF is a joint federal, state, and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking organizations and organized criminal enterprises, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations, and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.

This case was investigated by the DEA, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Bartlett Police Department.

United States Attorney Kevin Ritz thanked Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Kimbril-Parks who prosecuted this case, as well as the law enforcement partners who investigated the case.

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For more information, please contact Public Information Officer Cherri Green at (901) 544-4231 or cherri.green@usdoj.gov. Follow @ WDTNNews on Twitter for office news and updates.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

DETROIT – Former St. Clair Shores physician Bernard Shelton, 66, was convicted today by a federal jury in Detroit on twenty-one charges related to the unlawful distribution of prescription drugs. He was also convicted of a patient’s overdose death that resulted from his unlawful prescribing, announced United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison.

Ison was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Orville O. Greene, Drug Enforcement Administration, Detroit Field Division.

The trial began on February 28, 2023 and was conducted before United States District Judge Denise Page Hood.

The evidence demonstrated that Shelton prescribed over 5.5 million doses of controlled substances between April 2013 and December 2016.  Shelton prescribed over 2.7 million doses of Schedule II controlled substances such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, usually prescribing the types and strengths of drugs most valuable on the street market.  When an undercover patient made an initial visit to Dr. Shelton complaining of back stiffness, Dr. Shelton did not examine the patient’s back, but instead asked “What can I give you today” before prescribing the requested narcotics.  The jury found that Dr. Shelton issued twenty-one prescriptions to seven different patients outside the usual course of professional practice and for no legitimate medical purpose so he could charge for office visits and tests. Shelton received over $1.4 million from Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan during the same time period.

Shelton began prescribing opioid pain relievers in 2010 to a patient whose pain was previously treated by prescription strength Motrin.  Shelton prescribed increasingly stronger controlled substances over the next six years, and the patient became addicted to the drugs.  On January 14, 2016, Shelton unlawfully prescribed an increased dosage of oxycodone to the 54-year-old patient.  The patient filled the prescription on January 18, 2016.  The patient suffered an overdose two days later, but received Narcan and survived.  A second oxycodone overdose four days later, on January 24, 2016, was fatal.  

Based on the jury’s verdict, Shelton will be sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years in prison, with a maximum sentence of life.  Shelton will be sentenced in July, 2023. 

Due to licensure actions, Shelton has been unable to prescribe controlled substances since January 2017.

“Doctors who dangerously prescribe opiates for their own profit endanger the community just like other drug dealers.  When a doctor causes an overdose death with an illegitimate prescription, we will not hesitate to hold the doctor accountable,” stated U.S. Attorney Ison. “My office is committed to keeping highly addictive opioids off the street, and we will aggressively investigate and prosecute medical professionals  or anyone else who illegally distribute controlled substances.”

“The DEA, through regulation and enforcement, will continue to collaborate with our law enforcement and regulatory partners to investigate and eventually prosecute medical professionals who use their position to conceal the unlawful diversion and distribution of prescription drugs,” said Special Agent in Charge Greene.

The case was investigated by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from the St. Clair Shores police department and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.  The trial was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Wayne F. Pratt and Lisandra Fernandez-Silber.