Source: Office of United States Attorneys
MOBILE, AL – Michael Jerome Elder, age 50, was sentenced today to 180 months in prison after entering a guilty plea to a count of Distribution of Child Pornography. Elder entered his guilty plea on January 16, 2025.
According to court documents, a Mobile County Sheriff’s Office deputy was conducting an investigation to identify individuals in the Southern District of Alabama who demonstrate a sexual interest in children. To do so, he utilized law enforcement software to investigate users sharing files of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) via a file-sharing network. The investigator located an IP address that was involved in the sharing of numerous files of CSAM. He was able to identify Elder as a resident at the residential address associated with the IP address. The investigator obtained a search warrant and located Elder in the home, and a search team was able to discover a cell phone that Elder had hidden in a vent. The cell phone was examined and found to contain CSAM.
Elder had previously been convicted of five counts of Being in Possession of Obscene Material of Minors, violations of Alabama Code 13-A-012-0192(B), in the Circuit Court of Mobile County. He had been released from custody on that offense on November 15, 2022, less than a year before the MCSO investigator discovered him distributing child pornography.
At sentencing, Judge DuBose imposed the 180-month sentence of incarceration and a 15-year term of supervised release upon his future release. During his term of imprisonment, Elder will be subject to sex offender treatment, substance abuse testing and treatment, and mental health treatment. Elder will be required to register as a sex offender and is to have no contact with minors. Elder was ordered to pay $5,100 in special assessments.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations and Mobile County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kacey Chappelear and Tandice Blackwood prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
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 https://www.justice.gov/psc/publications-resources