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(updated 08/09/2001).
Texas couple
convicted in international Internet porn ring kept lavish lifestyle
By David
Koenig
Rodger Mallison / Fort Worth
Star-Telegram
Janice
Reedy, left, and Thomas Reedy leave the Federal Courthouse
in Fort Worth, Texas, Monday, Nov. 27, 2000, after jury
selection in their internet child pornography trial. A
federal judge on Monday sentenced Thomas Reedy to 1,335
years in prison and Janice Reedy to 14 years.
DALLAS
-- Thomas and Janice Reedy lived in an upscale Fort Worth neighborhood
where neighbors say they threw all-night pool parties and where luxury
cars would pull into their half-moon driveway at all hours of the night.
They told neighbors they were in the computer
business, which was partly true: They sold access to child pornography
on Internet sites with names like "Cyber Lolita" and "Child Rape."
Authorities say it was an international operation with 250,000
subscribers that grossed as much as $1.4 million a month.
This week, the Reedys were sentenced to prison for
conspiracy to distribute and possess child pornography
On Wednesday, authorities announced the arrests of
100 of the couple's subscribers in what they called the largest
child-pornography business discovered in the United States.
"This is the worst kind of exploitation," said
Ruben Rodriguez, a director at the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children. "To think of the image of child pornography -- a
child is being molested, raped, abused. You're allowing people to pay to
look at this victimization of a child." The
Reedys' attorneys call them victims of an overzealous government.
Susie Boese, who lives next door to the Reedys'
former Fort Worth home, said Mrs. Reedy's young daughter spent a lot of
time with her children. "We would ask the little
girl what her parents did, and she just said they worked in computers
and that's all she would say," Boese said. When
the investigation heated up, the Reedys left Fort Worth for a small home
in nearby Lake Worth. They were arrested in April 2000.
In court, Mrs. Reedy, 32, testified that she met
Thomas Reedy, 38, in South Texas and moved to Fort Worth in 1997 with
her daughter, who was then 6. He was already
working on a start-up Internet company, Landslide Inc. Mrs. Reedy was
trained to keep the company's books. She testified that she saw
offensive-sounding names of Web sites, but a woman training her in 1997
told her to ignore them. "She said, 'Don't worry.
They're just names. They don't mean anything,"' she testified.
For more than two years, Mrs. Reedy charged users
a fee to view sexually explicit sites, kept 40 percent of the money and
sent 60 percent to Webmasters in Indonesia and Russia. She said she
learned the sites contained child pornography when a former employee
tipped her off in 1999. "I went to my husband, and
he said he had contacted the FBI and it was all being handled," Mrs.
Reedy said. Less than a month later, police raided
the business. Thomas Reedy, a licensed vocational
nurse who taught himself computers, didn't testify during the five-day
trial in federal court in Fort Worth. His wife was the last defense
witness. The couple argues they were merely
collecting money for other businesses. Attorney
Steven Rozan, who is preparing their appeal, said the Reedys are victims
-- Reedy was sentenced to life in prison and his wife received 14 years.
"To lose 10 years of a person's life in prison is
a helluva lot for a crime that doesn't involve death, doesn't involve
maiming, but is basically a cybercrime," Rozan said. "These people were
basically ticket takers." Investigators didn't
believe Mrs. Reedy's claim to be ignorant of the child pornography.
Ron Eddins, who helped prosecute the case, said
Mrs. Reedy exchanged e-mail messages with foreign Webmasters about irate
customers who complained they weren't getting all they paid for.
"The Reedys marketed adult-porn sites and
kiddie-porn sites. They charged more for the kiddie porn," Paul Coggins,
who was U.S. attorney at the time, said Wednesday.
Authorities said the investigation and arrests of
customers will continue. Five Webmasters have been indicted, but none
arrested. After their arrests, prosecutors offered
Thomas Reedy a 20-year prison term and Janice Reedy a five-year term if
they would plead guilty and help capture the Webmasters by luring them
to countries with extradition treaties with the United States, said
Eddins. Instead, the Reedys posted messages in
Internet chat rooms announcing their arrests and asking for money to
hire lawyers, Eddins said. The bulk of the
pornographic material came from overseas, including from Russia and
Indonesia. Authorities said some of the children involved were American.
The investigation began after a tip from
Minneapolis, said Dallas police Lt. William Walsh, whose department
worked on the undercover case to target the Reedys' customers. The
investigation was led by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
After raiding the Reedys' business, undercover
agents shut down the Landslide Web site and contacted its users. When
subscribers ordered child pornography delivered to their homes, agents
moved in. Investigators focused on the most
egregious U.S. offenders, authorities said. Among
those arrested: a computer consultant from North Carolina accused of
producing videos depicting abuse of young girls, including a 4-year-old;
and a West Virginia man who worked at a psychiatric hospital for
sexually abused children.
Associated Press writer Alex Lyda contributed
to this report.
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