March 10, 2008

PRODUCING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY NETS TRACY SEX OFFENDER 25 YEARS IN PRISON

FRESNO — United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced that MANUEL GUTIERREZ, Jr., 47, of Tracy, California, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill to a prison term of 25 years for one count of producing sexually explicit images of a minor. His sentence will be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, during which he will be required to register as a sex offender, and his access to minors, computers, and the Internet will be restricted. He was sentenced for his conviction of.

The case was the result of an investigation by the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation, the San Joaquin County Probation Department, the Tracy Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Modesto.

According to Assistant United States Attorney David Gappa, who prosecuted the case, law enforcement officers conducted a probation compliance check at GUTIERREZ’s residence in October 2006. GUTIERREZ was on probation for a 2005 misdemeanor conviction for possession of child pornography. When officers searched his residence and his computer, they discovered that he not only had obtained additional images of child pornography, he had produced sexually explicit images of a minor. GUTIERREZ admitted in a plea agreement that between April and June of 2006 he used a digital camera to produce sexually explicit images of a victim who was less than twelve years of age. Court documents in the case also establish that he previously used facilities of interstate commerce (a phone and a computer with an Internet connection) to persuade, induce, and entice a 15-year-old girl in Maine to engage in criminal sexual activity from approximately April 2001 through August 2004.

GUTIERREZ has been in custody as a danger to the community and a flight risk since his arrest on October 11, 2006.

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