SEX OFFENDER FROM OHIO CONVICTED OF DISTRIBUTING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

HOUSTON, TX – Curtis W. Meyers, a previously convicted sex offender from Ohio who traveled to Texas to meet with a “13-year-old boy” he had been chatting with online, was convicted of distributing child pornography and could face no less than 15 and a maximum of 40 years in federal prison and a lifetime of supervision after his release, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today. Sentencing has been set for October 27, 2006.

At a hearing held on Wednesday, August 2, 2006, before United States District Judge Keith Ellison, Meyers, 48, of Oxford, Ohio, pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography. Meyers was indicted in late 2004 and has been in federal custody since his arrest on December 28, 2004, after U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Wm. Smith found Meyers presented a danger to the community. Because Meyers was previously convicted in Ohio and served a prison term for six counts of Gross Sexual Imposition in 1992, offenses that involved him touching minor boys, the United States will urge the court at sentencing to impose a sentence within the enhanced statutory sentencing range of 15 to 40 years, seek a lifetime of supervision following his release from prison, and further request that as a condition of his release Meyers be required to register as a sex offender.

The prosecution of Meyers was initiated with the filing of a criminal complaint on December 28, 2004, which resulted from a joint investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Houston Police Department (HPD) as part of the Houston FBI’s Cybercrimes Squad’s Innocent Images Task Force. The complaint alleged that in a series of online computer chats between November 3, 2004, through December 27, 2004, Meyers, not knowing he was actually chatting with an agent posing as a 13-year-old boy, asked the “minor” to engage in illegal sexually explicit activity with him. On five different days during that time, Meyers sent approximately eight images of child pornography to the undercover agent, and arranged to meet the “minor” at a Houston area restaurant on December 28. Meyers flew from Ohio to Texas.

In anticipation of the planned meeting between Meyers and the “minor,” agents of the FBI and HPD officers established surveillance at the agreed upon restaurant in advance of the meeting time. On December 28, 2004, at approximately 8:30 a.m., Meyers was arrested upon arriving at the restaurant to meet the minor.

The prosecution of Meyers is part of a comprehensive Department of Justice initiative called Project Safe Childhood (PSC) aimed at preventing the abuse and exploitation of children through the Internet or other distribution technology. PSC creates on a national platform locally designed partnerships of federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officers in each federal district to investigate and prosecute Internet-based crimes against children. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Martha Minnis.