The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that James W. Cota, 47, of Milton, was sentenced yesterday by Judge J. Garvan Murtha in United States District Court in Rutland to 70 months of imprisonment following his guilty pleas to charges of receipt and possession of child pornography. Cota was also ordered to serve a five-year term of supervised release following completion of his prison sentence. During his supervised release, Cota will be subject to numerous special conditions, including sex offender evaluation and treatment as required by the United States Probation Office and extensive limitations on his access to children and computers.
According to court records, agents with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) obtained evidence in 2007 that Cota had previously purchased a membership to a child pornography web site. In March 2007, a USPIS agent working undercover as a purveyor of child pornography mailed to Cota a solicitation offering child pornography videos. Cota ordered one of the videos and was arrested after a May 16, 2007 controlled delivery of the video to him at the Champlain Branch of the Burlington Post Office. On May 17, 2007, the USPIS executed a search warrant at the residence of Cota, resulting in the seizure of two computers, among other things. Forensic analysis of the computers revealed more than 1000 photographs and 231 videos containing child pornography, including images of pre-pubescent children being vaginally and orally penetrated by adult males, and images of a violent or sadistic nature. Cota, who was initially charged by complaint on May 17, 2007, was indicted by a federal grand jury on August 30, 2007, in a superseding indictment charging him with one count of receipt of child pornography through the mails and two counts of possession of child pornography.
After being released by the court in May 2007, Cota violated conditions of release imposed by the court restricting his access to children and requiring partial home confinement. After a hearing on the violations in November 2007, the court ordered Cota detained pending trial. Additional investigation during the spring of 2008 by the USPIS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement determined that in August 2007, while on conditions of release and prior to his detention, Cota had purchased access to a child pornography web site and downloaded at least 20 video files containing child pornography.
At yesterday's sentencing hearing, the United States recommended that Cota be sentenced in accordance with the advisory Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which provided for a prison sentence between 121 and 151 months. The United States argued that such a sentence was warranted by, among other things, the serious nature of the offense, the number and nature of the images possessed, Cota's prior criminal record, his violations of the conditions of release, including his downloading of additional child pornography, and the results of a psychosexual evaluation by an expert retained by Cota, which indicated, among other things, that Cota has a deviant sexual interest in grade school-aged girls. The United States further argued that the sentence prescribed by the Guidelines was appropriate to protect the public and send a strong and clear message that individuals who sexually exploit children by possessing and trading in child pornography for their own sexual gratification face significant prison terms.
Judge Murtha declined to follow the Guidelines and instead imposed a non-Guideline sentence of 70 months, finding that such sentence was sufficient but not greater than necessary to comply with the purposes of the federal statute governing sentencing, that the Guidelines overstate the seriousness of the offense, and the lack of treatment in prison until the Defendant's final 18 months in prison. Judge Murtha also cited, among other things, the absence of evidence that Cota distributed child pornography or acted inappropriately with minors, Cota's record of compliance during the period of supervised released following his imprisonment on an earlier federal drug conviction, his employment history, his family circumstances, and the opinion by Cota's psychosexual evaluator that Cota presented a low risk of recidivism.
United States Attorney Thomas D. Anderson commended the investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the investigative assistance provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Cota was represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Robert Fellrath. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Craig Nolan.
U.S. Attorney Anderson also noted that this prosecution was part of the United States Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. |
