November 26th 2013: One of the Longest Child Pornography Sentences in Colorado History goes to Richard Franklin (a.k.a “westfaliaimplant”)

Denver Man Sentenced to 100 Years in Federal Prison for Advertising Child Pornography and Other Child Pornography-Related Crimes

Judge Wiley Y. Daniel

Richard Franklin, a.k.a “westfaliaimplant”, age 45 of Denver, Colorado, was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Wiley Y. Daniel to serve 1200 months (100 years) in federal prison for:

• advertising child pornography, 
• receipt of child pornography, 
• two counts of distribution of child pornography, 
• and possession of child pornography.  

Today’s sentence, one of the longest child pornography sentences in Colorado history, essentially means the defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison. Judge Daniel also ordered Franklin to serve a lifetime of supervised release. The defendant, who appeared at the hearing in custody, was remanded. 

Franklin was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on June 8th, 2011. He was found guilty on August 27th 2013, following a seven-day jury trial. He was sentenced today, November 26th, 2013. 

According to court documents, as well as facts presented at trial, from May 11th 2009 and January 5th 2011, Franklin knowingly made, printed or published any notice or advertisement offering to receive, exchange or distribute child pornography to anyone who was a member of his Online Trading Circle. Further, the defendant knowingly received and distributed child pornography using the Internet.

Lastly, Franklin knowingly possessed images of child pornography.

For example: Filesharing Software

In total, the defendant possessed multiple hard drives containing over 200,000 images of child pornography. Franklin used a file trading software to allow others to preview and browse his collection and to chat with fellow child pornography traders. Part of the trading of images was to encourage purveyors to produce new child pornography videos. As a result of this investigation, two young children, both under 12 years old, were rescued from their abusers.When imposing the sentence, the Court stated that the crimes of the defendant were:

“pernicious and evil” and “must be dealt with in the most severe way.”

U.S. Attorney John Walsh said:

“The Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood continues to work aggressively to protect children from those who would exploit them. In cases such as this, we work diligently to punish those who provide these horrible images, with the goal of reducing both the availability and demand.”

FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle said:

Thomas Ravenelle

“The FBI will continue to aggressively pursue those who prey on children, especially those who advertise, trade and/or produce child pornography. Crimes of this nature threatened to destroy our most precious resource, offend every sensibility, and cannot be tolerated. The FBI and our partners will spare no expense or resource to bring them to justice.”

This case was investigate by the Denver and Phoenix Field Offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Additional Information about the Judge Wiley Y. Daniel can be found here.