Vermont Business Magazine The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated that on June 25, 2020, Shane Allen Edgerly, 44, of Milton, Vermont, was sentenced in United States District Court in Rutland to serve 87 months in prison after his guilty plea to one count of possession of child pornography.
Chief U.S. District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford also ordered Edgerly to serve a 10-year term of supervised release, and to pay a $100 special assessment. According to court records, during 2017, Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) in Burlington received 22 “CyberTips” from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicating that an individual had uploaded suspected images of child pornography using Pinterest.
NCMEC determined that the 22 CyberTips appeared to be related, due to a common IP Address and three e-mail accounts, all connected to Edgerly. The CyberTips referenced sexually explicit photographs of females who appeared to be under the age of 16, and in some instances approximately 8-10 years old.
In July 2018, HSI received a new CyberTip originating from Rabbit, Inc. Rabbit, Inc. provided numerous images shared by Edgerly, using an email account, as well as a chat log memorializing communications between Edgerly and another Rabbit, Inc. user.
The images included numerous pictures of prepubescent girls exposing their genitals. In October 2018, HSI, working in partnership with Vermont Attorney General’s Office investigators, obtained a search warrant for Edgerly’s residence.
Before the search on October 4, 2018, Edgerly admitted to HSI and Vermont Attorney General’s Office investigators that he possessed and traded child pornography.
In addition, during the search of Edgerly’s residence investigators found electronic devices holding over 800 images of suspected child pornography.
U.S. Attorney Nolan commended the efforts of Homeland Security Investigations and the Vermont Attorney General’s Office investigators.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Darrow and Nikolas Kerest prosecuted Edgerly. Assistant Federal Public Defender Steven Barth represented Edgerly.
U.S. Attorney Nolan noted that this prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.
Led by the U.S. Attorney’s 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.justice.gov/psc.
Source: United States Attorney 6.25.2020