A federal grand jury in Paducah has returned an indictment from March 12, charging a North Carolina man with receiving and possessing child pornography on the Fort Campbell Army installation.
Per documents, 23-year-old Brett Nicholas Ellison committed the offenses between November 2019 and July 2022 on the Fort Campbell Army installation.
Ellison made an initial appearance in Paducah earlier this week before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and maximum of up to 40 years in prison. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. And there is no parole in the federal system.
The FBI Hopkinsville Satellite Office and Army CID are investigating the case.
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Stansbury of the FBI Louisville Field Offic, and Special Agent in Charge John T. McCabe, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) made the announcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Raymond McGee, of the U.S. Attorney’s Paducah Branch Office, is prosecuting the case.
ABOUT THE CASE:
This 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.
Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.
For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.
An indictment is an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
