A Juneau man is facing federal charges of child pornography production after a mother in the Lower 48 discovered sexually explicit messages between him and her child.
On Wednesday, acting U.S. Attorney for Alaska Bryan Schroder announced 24-year-old Scott Andrew Funk was arrested the day before. Officials charged Funk with a single count each of production of child pornography, enticement of a minor using the internet and receipt and possession of child pornography.
The criminal complaint against Funk, filed in federal court, states that he met a child in New York in a “free online chat website that allows users to socialize with others through the Internet without the need to register.” He then instructed the child to use a second free app to continue their conversations, which were sexual in nature and included explicit photos. According to the child, they also used a video chat application, through which Funk allegedly watched the child engage in sexual acts. All of this took place between early March and early April, when the messages were discovered, according to the complaint.
When investigators found out who the child was talking to online, they read Funk his Miranda rights and interviewed him in Juneau. He admitted he’d known the child’s age during their conversations and also confirmed the saved messages were between him and the child.
If convicted, Funk faces a minimum five-year sentence for the lesser charges, and up to a life sentence for the more serious charges. Each charge could also incur him a fine of up $250,000, meaning he could be required to pay as much as $1 million in fines.
Schroder noted in a statement that the investigation was led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation, which has worked with the Department of Justice as part of Project Safe Childhood. The joint agency project was created in 2003 to identify and protect child victims of online exploitation and abuse and has led to the arrest of more than 14,000 suspects.
“Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood combines federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, identify and rescue victims and to educate the public about safe Internet use, thereby reducing the risk that children might fall prey to online sexual predators,” Schroder wrote.
The post Juneau man arrested on child porn production charges appeared first on KTVA 11.
