An Antelope man has been sentenced and a Sacramento man has pleaded guilty in separate child pornography cases.
Stephen Graeff, 60, of Antelope, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller to 15 years in prison, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release for distributing child pornography, according to a federal Department of Justice news release.
Graeff maintained a collection of approximately 1,020 files of child pornography, according to court records. He shared and posted the child pornography images from his computer to others on the Internet.
Graeff pleaded guilty in August to distribution of visual depictions of minors engaged n sexually explicit conduct. According to court documents, he not only distributed child pornography, but also encouraged another perpetrator to victimize two children.
The case resulted from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In the second case, Ray Laurence Howes, 24, of Sacramento pleaded guilty Tuesday to receiving child pornography.
According to court documents, in September 2012, the Sacramento Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a tip that Howes had uploaded child pornography to his cloud storage service. A search warrant was obtained and multiple images of child pornography were found.
During a subsequent search of Howes' residence, agents found more images of child pornography on his computer as well as sexually explicit Yahoo chats with individuals identifying themselves as minors. Authorities said Howes also possessed non-pornographic digital pictures of minors that he had surreptitiously taken at local schools and playgrounds. Some of these photos focused on children's clothed midsections.
Howes is to be sentenced June 11 by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez.
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