KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On September 27, 2018, Ogleva Charles Mowell, of LaFollette, Tennessee, was sentenced by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, Chief U.S. District Judge, to serve 70 months in federal prison for distributing and possessing child pornography. Following his release from prison, Mowell will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for five years and required to register with the sex offender registry in any state in which he resides, works, or attends school.

In April 2018, Mowell pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from an undercover investigation into the distribution of child pornography over the Internet. A search warrant was issued for Mowell’s residence and his computer was seized. A forensic examination of his computer revealed that Mowell had searched for child pornography on the Internet and saved images of child pornography on his computer. Mowell made his collection of child pornography available to others to download through the use of peer-to-peer software.

“The distribution of child pornography is a serious crime that perpetuates the victimization of children and fuels the demand for the production of more child pornography,” said J. Douglas Overbey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. “Our office will continue to work with investigative agencies to build cases for successful prosecution of the offenders.”

This investigation was conducted by the Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Morris represented the United States in court proceedings.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC 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 PSC, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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