KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – On June 15, 2023, Roger Glenn Boland, 68, currently of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, was sentenced to 600 months imprisonment by the Honorable Katherine A. Crytzer, United States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville.
As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Boland agreed to plead guilty to an indictment charging him with, one count of production of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and (e); and one count of distribution of CSAM in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252A(a)(2). Following his incarceration, Boland will be on a lifetime of supervised release, he also will be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions during his supervised release.
According to the plea agreement filed with the court, after receiving a tip that a 13-year-old child was in imminent danger of sexual abuse, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Knoxville Police Department Internet Crimes against Children Unit (KPD-ICAC) executed a search warrant at the home where the child victim was residing. The child victim, Boland’s granddaughter, has cerebral palsy, is non-verbal, and is wheelchair bound. Boland admitted the victim was the result of an incestual relationship between Boland and his daughter, co-defendant Felina Shockley. Authorities searched Boland’s cellphone and located CSAM of the victim produced by Boland and Shockley. Boland admitted to distributing the CSAM images to other men with whom he was in ongoing communications. Shockley has pled guilty and will be sentenced at a later date.
U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee and HSI Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud made the announcement. Both express gratitude to the Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (KPD-ICAC) Unit for their collaboration in this investigation.
The criminal indictment was the result of an investigation by KPD-ICAC and HSI.
Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Kolman represented the United States.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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 Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab “resources.”
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