Also Admitted Producing Child Pornography by Filming a Minor Female Using a Hidden Camera
GREENBELT, Md. (Sept. 25, 2015)—Richard Spivey, age 52, of Waldorf, pleaded guilty today to distribution of child pornography. After Spivey’s guilty plea, U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel ordered that he be immediately detained and Spivey was taken into custody.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to Spivey’s plea agreement, between January 29 and 30, 2014, Spivey used a file sharing program to distribute over 2,000 files depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. A search warrant was executed at Spivey’s residence on June 18, 2014, and law enforcement seized numerous electronic devices, including a desktop computer, a laptop computer and two external hard drives. A forensic review of the electronic devices found thousands of image files and hundreds of movie files containing child pornography. Some of the files portrayed sadistic and masochistic conduct and other depictions of violence, as well as images of infants and toddlers.
In addition, law enforcement found videos on Spivey’s electronic devices that he produced, depicting a prepubescent female in different stages of undress. Spivey admitted that he surreptitiously recorded the child while she was undressing, using a hidden camera. These videos constitute child pornography. Finally, Spivey also admitted surreptitiously producing videos of an adult female, while that person was in the bathroom in various stages of undress.
As part of his plea agreement, Spivey must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
Spivey and the government have agreed that if the Court accepts the plea agreement Spivey will be sentenced to between 150 and 240 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel has scheduled sentencing for January 25, 2016 at 2:00 p.m.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, for its work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicolas A. Mitchell and Kristi A. O’Malley, who are prosecuting the case.
Source: Office of United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein