East Texas Man Charged with Producing Child Porn

A 51-year-old Longview, Texas man has been sentenced to federal prison for child exploitation violations in Eastern  Texas.

Mitchell Duane Porter pleaded guilty on Jan. 11, 2012, to production of child pornography and was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison on June 5, 2012 by U.S. District Judge Leonard E. Davis.

According to information presented in court, on Aug. 26, 2011, a federal search warrant was executed at Porter's residence in Longview.  Several computers, cameras, and other forms of digital media and media storage devices were seized during the search.

A forensic analysis of the seized items revealed over a thousand images of child pornography with approximately 8 of those photos taken by Porter.  Some of the images depicted prepubescent children under the age of 12 years engaged to sexually explicit conduct, and some of the images involved the actual commission of a sexual act.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment on Sep. 21, 2011, charging Porter with federal violations.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Harrison County Sheriff's Office and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher T. Tortorice.