Credit: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Mississippi
A Tylertown man was sentenced to serve 128 months in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Jermicha Fomby of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Jason Patrick Appeldorn, age 47 of Tylertown, was sentenced on Aug. 23 in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. In addition to his term of imprisonment, Appeldorn was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $63,500 to victims and a $5,000 fine. Appeldorn was also ordered to pay an additional $5,000 assessment under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018.
According to court documents, on Sept. 23, 2021, federal officers of the U.S. Probation Office executed a search of Appeldorn’s residence in Tylertown. Appeldorn had been under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office since Nov. 29, 2017, because of a previous conviction for possession of child pornography in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Appeldorn’s cellular telephone recovered at the search was forensically examined and over 2,000 visual depictions of child sexual abuse material of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct was recovered.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Cyber Crimes Division.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones prosecuted the case.
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 the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.
