The End of James Dale Brown
FREMONT MAN SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS FOR ATTEMPTING TO EXTORT CHILD PORNOGRAPHY FROM MINOR
OAKLAND - James Dale Brown, 28, of Fremont, California, was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison and a $20,000 fine for possessing child pornography and attempting to extort additional images of an underage girl that he harassed via the social networking website Facebook, United States Attorney Melinda Haag and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division announced.
Brown was arrested in Fremont, California on August 26, 2010, and made his initial appearance in federal court in Oakland on August 27, 2010. He subsequently pled guilty on February 2, 2011 before U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton. In pleading guilty, Mr. Brown admitted that from December 2008 through April 2009, under the Facebook username “BOB LEWIS,” he repeatedly contacted a girl he knew to be 14 years old via her Facebook webpage. Prior to contacting the victim, Mr. Brown had obtained a revealing photograph of the victim. Mr. Brown informed the victim that he had this photograph, and others, and suggested that he would delete all the pictures of her “from the Internet” only if she sent him a video of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct. To force her to send such a video, Mr. Brown threatened to expose explicit images of the victim then in his possession to the victim's friends, who were also minors. Despite Mr. Brown's consistent harassment, the victim resisted his efforts for several months. To carry out his threats, on April 18, 2009, Mr. Brown sent two Internet links to the victim's friend, also a minor, which directed the victim's friend to an explicit image of the victim. The victim's mother referred the matter to law enforcement. And, on April 23, 2009, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant on Mr. Brown's Fremont, California residence, leading to his arrest.
This is the first case involving the attempted extortion of a minor for child pornography via a social networking website, such as Facebook, to be prosecuted in the Northern District of California.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Hill and Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park of the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
OAKLAND - James Dale Brown, 28, of Fremont, California, was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison and a $20,000 fine for possessing child pornography and attempting to extort additional images of an underage girl that he harassed via the social networking website Facebook, United States Attorney Melinda Haag and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division announced.
Brown was arrested in Fremont, California on August 26, 2010, and made his initial appearance in federal court in Oakland on August 27, 2010. He subsequently pled guilty on February 2, 2011 before U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton. In pleading guilty, Mr. Brown admitted that from December 2008 through April 2009, under the Facebook username “BOB LEWIS,” he repeatedly contacted a girl he knew to be 14 years old via her Facebook webpage. Prior to contacting the victim, Mr. Brown had obtained a revealing photograph of the victim. Mr. Brown informed the victim that he had this photograph, and others, and suggested that he would delete all the pictures of her “from the Internet” only if she sent him a video of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct. To force her to send such a video, Mr. Brown threatened to expose explicit images of the victim then in his possession to the victim's friends, who were also minors. Despite Mr. Brown's consistent harassment, the victim resisted his efforts for several months. To carry out his threats, on April 18, 2009, Mr. Brown sent two Internet links to the victim's friend, also a minor, which directed the victim's friend to an explicit image of the victim. The victim's mother referred the matter to law enforcement. And, on April 23, 2009, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant on Mr. Brown's Fremont, California residence, leading to his arrest.
This is the first case involving the attempted extortion of a minor for child pornography via a social networking website, such as Facebook, to be prosecuted in the Northern District of California.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Hill and Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park of the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.