BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A Campbellsville, Kentucky, man, has been found guilty at trial for attempted receipt of child pornography and accessing the internet with intent to view child pornography, announced United States Attorney Russell Coleman. The jury convicted James S. Wolfe after deliberating for less than 30 minutes.

“Prey on our kids in the Western District of Kentucky and expect swift and aggressive federal prosecution,” said U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman. “This outcome is due to the fine work of the United States Probation Office, U.S. Secret Service, and a dedicated prosecutor.”

On July 2, 2019, a federal grand jury returned a two-count Superseding Indictment charging Wolfe with attempted receipt of child pornography and accessing with the intent to view child pornography. At the time of the charges, Wolfe was serving a 10-year term of Supervised Release imposed in Criminal Action Number 1:10CR-002 from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. In that case, Wolfe pled guilty to one count of possessing child pornography.

On November 29, 2017, Wolfe was released from the Bureau of Prisons and his 10-year term of Supervised Release commenced.  The United States Probation Office in the Western District of Kentucky agreed to accept Wolfe for supervision after changes were made to the conditions of the supervision.  Wolfe moved to Campbellsville, Kentucky, where he lived with his mother and older brother. He requested permission to have access to a computer.  The United States Probation Officer assigned to Wolfe’s supervision agreed to the request, but Wolfe was supposed to use the computer with internet access to seek employment and conduct routine business. And, the computer had to have monitoring software loaded on it to keep track of Wolfe’s activities.  The supervising Probation Officer met with Wolfe and explained the monitoring process to him and his mother.  Monitoring began on April 24, 2018.

Less than a week later, the monitoring company, RemoteCom, contacted the Probation Officer concerning Wolfe’s search activities.  On May 7, 2018, the supervising Probation Officer received notification that Wolfe’s computer was not reporting back to RemoteCom’s servers.  Two days after the reinstallation of the monitoring software, RemoteCom again notified the Probation Officer of concerning activity on Wolfe’s computer.  The search terms clearly referred to children and sexual activity.  On May 25, 2018, the supervising Probation Officer conducted an unscheduled home visit.  The Probation Officer made contact with Wolfe and his mother.  When confronted by the Probation Officer concerning the online activity, Wolfe stated that he didn’t think anything he had searched or viewed constituted pornography.  The Probation Officer seized the computer, an unauthorized cellular telephone and numerous pages of handwritten notes (containing, among other things, lists of web sites). 

A forensic examination of the computer conducted by the United States Secret Service revealed search terms indicative of child sexual exploitation as well as shadow copies of images depicting the sexual exploitation of children.  The Secret Service agent prepared a report and provided it to the United States Probation Office.  The United States Probation Officer submitted the information to the Court to revoke Wolfe’s Supervised Release.  United States District Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., revoked Wolfe’s Supervised Release.  Wolfe’s conduct also led to the filing of the charges for which he was tried earlier this week in Bowling Green, Kentucky, before Chief United States District Judge Greg N. Stivers.

The defendant faces a mandatory-minimum sentence of 15 years imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. Wolfe is scheduled to appear before Chief Judge Stivers for sentencing on April 23, 2020, at 10:00 a.m., CDT, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Wolfe remains in the custody of the United States Marshals Service.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jo Lawless. The case was investigated by the United States Probation Office and the United States Secret Service.

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