Portland Man Enters Guilty Plea and Agrees to 50-Year Prison Sentence in Production of Child Pornography Case

Portland, OR—U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones accepted Mark A. Hoffman's, 35, guilty pleas to production of child pornography today. The plea agreement requires Judge Jones to sentence Hoffman to 50 years in federal prison.

The federal investigation began in 2006 when an undercover online police officer, working with the North Caroline State Bureau of Investigation, received child pornography videos from Kenneth Rich, a Florida man. The videos depicted the sexual molestation of Rich's 5-year-old daughter. After his arrest, Rich provided information that led agents down a long trail of fathers and guardians across the country who were sexually abusing minor female children in their care. The fathers were communicating with one another online and sending child pornography images and videos through the internet. Rich was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison after conviction on sexual exploitation of children and for distribution of child pornography.

Eventually, Douglass Bartlett of Pennsylvania, who was sentenced to serve 160 months in federal prison for his conviction on distribution of child pornography, provided information about Hoffman and his then 2 and 10-year-old daughters. Bartlett described the images sent to him by Hoffman, which included pictures and videos of Hoffman's minor daughters either nude or engaged in oral and or sexual intercourse with Hoffman.

Search warrants were executed at Hoffman's residence on November 6, 2007 and February 12, 2008. Agents seized numerous images from disks and Hoffman's computer depicting all three of his minor children engaged in various sexual acts. A forensic exam of Hoffman's computer showed more than 6,000 child pornography images, 60 of the images were directly attributable to the three children identified during the search. Investigators found additional child pornography on CDs and removable media as well. Based on items seen in the background of the pictures, investigators were able to verify that some of the pictures were taken in Portland and some were taken in Clark County, Washington.

Hoffman fully confessed to agents to engaging in sexual acts with one of his minor daughters beginning when she was two years old. He also admitted to using his cameras and computer to produce and transport child pornography images of both his daughters through the internet.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kemp L. Strickland.

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