KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On December 9, 2021, Breanna Cierra Sluder, 27, of Knoxville, Tenn., was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 30 years by the Honorable Katherine A. Crytzer, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. 

Following her imprisonment, Sluder will be supervised by the United States Probation Office for the rest of her life and will be required to comply with special conditions of release for sex offenders.  Sluder will also be required to register with the sex offender registry in any state in which she resides, works, or attends school.

Sluder pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography.  According to documents filed in court, in January 2020, a federal search warrant was executed at Sluder’s home after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided information to the Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit (KPD-ICAC) concerning images of child pornography being produced in Knoxville.  According to court documents, image and video files located during the investigation depicted the sexual victimization of an infant and a toddler by Sluder. 

This case was investigated by KPD-ICAC and the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations.  Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Kolman prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.