Blount County Man Sentenced To Jail For Child Pornography
By Lance Coleman, The Daily Times Staff
Originally published in The Daily Times, January 29, 2002
A 28-year-old Maryville man was sentenced to six years in prison Monday by Circuit Court Judge D. Kelly Thomas Jr. for buying child pornography over the Internet.
James Dale Walker pled guilty last year to aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and sexual exploitation of a minor. While Walker had taken steps to attend counseling and maintain a job, Thomas said the seriousness of the offense outweighed Walker's rehabilitation efforts.
"If you had bought just one video, this would be an entirely different situation. You would receive probation. But that's not anywhere close to what the facts are,'' he said.
Thomas said allowing Walker to serve only probation and not jail time could serve to "depreciate the seriousness of the offense.
"Mr. Walker, by ruling this way, I'm not saying you haven't made progress,'' Thomas said. "It's the magnitude and the role you've played in creating the need for this industry.''
Walker will be eligable for parole after he serves 30 percent of the sentence. A parole board will decide whether he's released.
Assistant District Attorney John Bobo said Walker's arrest and plea were the result of the Operation Avalanche case that developed out of the child pornography Web site in Dallas. A multi-agency federal/state task force led by the United States Postal Service executed search warrants in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on Landslide, Inc., in September, 1999.
Landslide, Inc., operated a Web-based adult verification service that verified customers' credit card payments.
"They found 35,000 names of people in the United States who subscribed to child pornography. They took the list of top 25 offenders in Tennessee and did an undercover sting operation,'' Bobo said. "It was the Internet service provider of child porn.''
In April 2000, an unsolicited e-mail was sent to the top 25 people who accessed the most child pornography sites at Landslide. This list included the defendant, Bobo said.
Bobo said that on April 28, 2000, Walker responded to the e-mail and visited the undercover Web sites using the screen name Ru2young4me@hotmail.com.
On the Web site, Walker entered a request for "pre-teen softcore, hardcore, group sex and bestiality pornography,'' Bobo said.
The video he selected allegedly was of a 9-year-old girl having sex.
On May 31, 2000, per Walker's instructions, a package with the video tape was prepared and sent to his Maryville post office box. Walker entered, took the package from the post office box, got into his car and opened the package.
At that time Walker was approached by investigators, Bobo said.
Walker gave written and oral statements and gave consent for them to check his computer.
While Walker said at the time he recently deleted pornographic images, investigators found hundreds of child pornographic images on his computer in the "Temporary Internet Files'' section.
Bobo said child pornography is "so poisonous and detrimental to the well-being of children that the mere possession of the material is a crime. The same as if the defendant had possessed LSD or heroin.
"His behavior reverberates up the chain to the manufacturers of child pornography, who rape and defile children to answer the demands of the defendant and people like him,'' Bobo said.
"The facts clearly show this 28-year-old defendant's sexual behavior -- from titillation to completion -- is centered on underage children. He is a danger to the children of the community,'' Bobo said.
