Dallas Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Federal Prison on Federal Child Pornography Conviction

DALLAS—Monte Melugin, 24, of Dallas, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade to 12 years in federal prison following his guilty plea in November 2010 to an information charging one count of receiving child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. In addition, Judge Kinkeade ordered Melugin to serve a lifetime of supervised release following his release from prison. He must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on April 27, 2011.

According to documents filed in the case, the investigation involving Melugin began in Miami, Florida, where an FBI agent, working in an undercover capacity, queried a peer-to-peer network and observed an individual using a particular username was logged on to the network; it was later determined that this particular username belonged to Melugin. When the undercover agent browsed Melugin’s shared folders, he observed approximately 1250 image and video files with names indicative of child pornography. The agent downloaded 18 of those files and all 18 depicted child pornography.

At today’s sentencing hearing, an FBI agent testified that further investigation revealed that Melugin had 1830 images and 68 videos of child pornography, with 80 percent of it of very young boys. Melugin admitted that he received and possessed images that included bondage and other sadistic acts involving minors.

This matter 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 U.S. 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 projectsafechildhood.gov

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks.