The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont stated Cory Johnson, formerly of South Burlington, Vermont, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford to 20 years of imprisonment with 15 years of supervised release to follow for producing child sexual abuse materials, also known as child pornography. Johnson previously pleaded guilty to a single count of child pornography production, admitting that, in or about September 2016, he video recorded sexually explicit content involving a minor. At sentencing, the government sought a 30-year sentence, the maximum allowed by law, for Johnson’s videotaped abuse of a toddler.
U.S. Attorney Nikolas Kerest stated, “The conviction in this case is the product of years of tireless and dedicated work by the prosecutors and their agent partners. Our office will continue to work alongside our law enforcement partners to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse by investigating and prosecuting those who victimize the most vulnerable.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office thanked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, for the agency’s work on the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eugenia A. P. Cowles and Jonathan A. Ophardt represented the government. Frank Twarog, Esq. represented Johnson.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and Child Exploitation Obscenity Section, Criminal Division (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 www.justice.gov/psc.