Idaho Falls man pleads guilty to sexual exploitation of a child
Justin Dixson, 42, of Idaho Falls pleaded guilty Thursday to sexual exploitation of a minor child.
Law enforcement agents downloaded 27 files of child pornography from Dixson’s computer between July 2014 and February 2015. According to a plea agreement, Dixson admitted additional images of child pornography were found on computer hardware at his residence during a search warrant search of his home last April.
Among the images were those of a minor child being sexually abused by Dixson. He admitted taking pictures of the abuse.
In total, law enforcement found 1,712 suspected images and videos of child pornography on Dixson’s computer.
Of those, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that 438 images and 29 videos depicted children previously identified as victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.
Dixson will be sentenced before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Pocatello on March 2, 2016.
The charge of sexual exploitation of a minor child is punishable by up to 30 years in prison, a maximum $250,000 fine and up to life supervised release.
The case was investigated by Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), Idaho Falls Police, U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Marshals Service (USMS).
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the 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.
