James Gaver also was ordered to get sex offender treatment and will be on lifetime supervision when he is released. He also must register as a sex offender
Gaver was among the hundreds of defendants located during the federal investigation into the “Playpen” child pornography website on the Tor network. Several such cases have been appealed on suppression issues.
The veteran who served for four years in the Air Force had agreed to plead guilty to one count of a 12-count federal indictment. The $5,000 restitution victim came from a woman who was part of the “Cindy” series of child pornography.
U.S. District Court Judge Walter Rice said a letter from the victim — which was not read Friday in open court — would “bring tears to your eyes.”
Gaver had served 10 years total in two different state cases involving child victims — one for sexually assaulting a victim from 3 to 6 years old in a 1992 case and another for child pornography-related counts.
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Federal public defender Thomas Anderson stressed that there was no contact with a minor in the federal case, but there were videos that included child rape.
“Aside from the ‘crack vs. powder’ cocaine disparity, perhaps no area of Federal Sentencing has been the subject of more critical comment than the implementation of the sentencing guidelines in child pornography cases,” Anderson wrote in his sentencing memorandum.
Rice agreed that the federal sentencing guidelines regarding child pornography defendants who have not had any physical contact with victims is “Draconian,” he noted that the plea range of 10-12 years was well below the 14-to-17.5 year guideline in this case. The judge also said Gaver may have had an amount of images “near six digits.”
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“I believe I have taken responsibility for these latest actions I’ve involved myself in,” Gaver said. “I know what I did was egregious and I rue the day that I got involved in it.”
Rice said Gaver said he had been molested as a child and has had an addiction to pornography. Gaver also did provide federal investigators with a password which provided more evidence.
Several of Gaver’s computer and storage devices were ordered to be forfeited. Gaver will be allowed to voluntarily surrender to the U.S. Marshals at a later date.
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