Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander today sentenced Freddie Emerson Crockett, age 40, of Earleville, Maryland, to 10 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release for possession of child pornography.  In imposing this sentence, the Court also found that Crockett had transported child pornography. Crockett will also pay $500 in restitution to one of the victims depicted in the images of child pornography that he possessed and transported.  In addition, upon his release from prison, Crockett must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Acting Special Agent in Charge Cardell T. Morant of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

According to his plea agreement, Crockett used two accounts on a social networking account to store, transport, and possess child pornography.  Specifically, between October 20, 2016 and October 24, 2017, Crockett used several email addresses to upload child pornography to his social networking accounts.  On October 3, 2017, Yahoo deactivated one of Crockett’s accounts, and the associated email address, for possession of child pornography.  The next day, Yahoo reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that someone using that email address had uploaded 133 files containing possible child pornography. Yahoo provided additional information to NCMEC, including the phone number and other email addresses associated with the owner of the account, as well as reporting Crockett’s possible association with the account.  On October 17, 2017, NCMEC provided Yahoo’s report to the Maryland State Police.  On October 3, 2017, the same day Yahoo deactivated one of his accounts for uploading and possessing child pornography, Crockett created a new account with a new email address, and used that account to upload additional images of child pornography.  Yahoo again filed a report with NCMEC, who also provided that report to the Maryland State Police.

Further investigation led the Maryland State Police to execute a search warrant at Crockett’s residence in Earleville on November 22, 2017.  An on-scene forensic preview of the memory card from Crockett’s cell phone located several images of child pornography.  Crockett’s phone, the memory card, and his laptop were seized.  A forensic examination of those items revealed more than 75 images depicting child pornography, including several images of a prepubescent female engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Crockett was already a sex offender based on two 2010 convictions in the Circuit Court for Cecil County for surreptitiously recording 13 and 16-year-old females while they were changing clothes in a bathroom at his residence.

This case 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 Attorney’s 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.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.       

United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended HSI-Baltimore and the Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey J. Izant and Judson T. Mihok, who prosecuted the federal case.

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