California Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Production and Possession of Child Pornography

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag of the Northern District of California and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, sentenced Edward Lee Sullivan, of Oakland, CA., 25 years in prison for possession and production of child pornography.

After a 13-day trial bench before U.S. District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen of the Northern District of California, a 39 year old Sullivan was found guilty on February 25, 2011 for one count of possessing child pornography and one count of producing. 

During a two-week period in March 2008, Sullivan trained a 14 year old girl to work for him as a child prostitute as shown by the evidence presented in the trial. Sullivan produced a number of photographs and video of the child which documented the steps Sullivan took to prepare the girl to work as a prostitute and as an actress in pornographic movies during the period of those two weeks. Sullivan filmed at least one pornographic video of the child according to the trial evidence .It showed Sullivan instructing the child as she performed oral sex on him. Sullivan was already on parole following a 2002 state conviction for pimping and sexual conduct with a 14 year old girl at the time of committing these crimes. 

Sullivan was sentenced on March 23, 2012 to a lifetime supervised released following his 25 years of prison term. Trial Attorney Alecia Riewerts Wolak of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew S. Huang and Maureen C. Bessette of the Northern District of California prosecuted the case. FBI; the Berkeley, CA., Police Department; and the Oakland Police Department conducted the investigation. 

Reference: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/March/12-crm-372.html