A federal judge sentenced four men Friday for their roles in an online international child pornography ring that prosecutors say had more than 1,000 members trading millions of sexually explicit images.
The four men had pleaded guilty to child pornography-related crimes, U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison’s office said in a statement. Michael Baratta, 49, Sacramento, Calif.; Scott Van Dorp, 51, Nashville, Ind.; and William Watkins, 39, Lake Worth, Fla., were sentenced to 15 years in prison. March Beren Reeder, 33, Harrisburg, Pa., was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
According to Morrison’s office, Baratta was the administrator of an online bulletin board that advertised and distributed child pornography. Van Dorp was linked to a second online bulletin board that contained child pornography, while Watkins served as the bulletin board moderator and Reeder participated in the porn-trading bulletin board, the statement said.
U.S. District Judge William T. Lawrence also sentenced each man to a lifetime of supervised release.
According to court documents filed in the Southern District of Indiana, the four men were among 26 co-conspirators charged in Indiana in the sophisticated, password-protected Internet bulletin board.
