By Miranda Simon
msimon@sacbee.com
Chico film producer James Thomas Flocker, 70, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for trading child pornography, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento said.
Flocker was found guilty of transporting, distributing and possessing child pornography by a jury on Feb. 26, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner.
U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez said that the defendant's involvement in child pornography was "serious as it represent(ed) an ongoing harm to the minor children who were used in (the images possessed and traded by the defendant.)"
Posing as a 19-year-old from Southern California, Flocker was trading pictures of prepubescent boys engaged in sexual acts with an 18-year-old man in South Carolina, Wagner said.
The evidence presented in court - including testimonies from FBI agents and a Yahoo records custodian - showed Flocker sent pictures of minor boys, including one of a 4-year-old toddler in Texas. The boy's picture had been taken by his uncle, who was later convicted of molesting him.
Flocker also uploaded four pictures of nude teenage boys to a Yahoo group, where its members were allowed download them into their private pornography collections and to redistribute them, Wagner said.
Nearly two-dozen images of child pornography were found on Flocker's computer following a search of his DVD production business on Oct. 27, 2004.
The images included a picture of a young man from Kentucky who was molested by a foster-care provider between the ages of 12 and 14, Wagner said.
This case came out of an investigation by the FBI's Chico Safe Streets Task Force, which included Special Agents from the FBI and members of the California State University, Chico Police Department.
Flocker produced, wrote and directed adventure movies for television. The most recent one was "The Ghost Ship," was released in 1992, according to the Internet Movie Database.
Call The Bee's Miranda Simon, (916) 321-1119.
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