12 years for cross-country child porn case
A man who fled child pornography charges in West Virginia will spend 12 years in federal prison after he was arrested in North Idaho with more than 200,000 explicit images of children on his computer.
Dennis J. Burke, 52, was sentenced today to 144 months in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Coeur d'Alene to transporting sexually explicit images of minors.
Burke was arrested in March 2009 after Bonner County Sheriff's deputies responding to an assault call at a Sandpoint motel learned of the pornography from the alleged assault victim.
Along with photos, investigators found 500 videos with explicit images of children in Burke’s possession.
Investigators with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified photos from 14 previously known child pornography cases involving children in Washington, Montana, Florida, Kentucky, California, England, Russia, Belgium, Paraguay, Brazil, Australia and France, according to federal court documents.
Burke will be on probation for 10 years after his prison sentence.
According to the News and Sentinel in Parkersburg, W.V., Burke left jail in September 2008 on $30,000 bond. Several people protested outside the courthouse at his next hearing, saying his bond was much too low.