Obscenity charge nets Athol man prison term

An Athol man was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for having images on his computer of naked children bound by ropes. Samuel Ted Ussery, 50, pleaded guilty on Jan. 3 to “transportation of an obscene matter,” U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Ussery to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. An officer with the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force developed the information in July 2010, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. ICAC officers executed a federal search warrant at Ussery’s house in September 2010. Although Ussery had deleted his computer hard drive, a U.S. Secret Service forensic examiner recovered evidence that such images had been on Ussery’s computer. ICAC is comprised of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in Idaho. The case 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.