Sevierville Man Sentenced To Over 12 Years Imprisonment For Receipt Of Child Pornography

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - On August 21, 2024, Ronnie Joe Maples, 47, currently of Sevierville, Tennessee was sentenced to 151 months by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, United States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. Following his incarceration, Maples will be on lifetime supervised release and will be required to register with state sex offender registries and to comply with special sex offender conditions.

As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Maples pled guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2).

According to documents filed in the case, Maples and another individual discussed actively molesting children and producing child pornography on the internet. During these discussions, Maples received child pornography from this individual. In November 2022, the individual with whom Maples was communicating began cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Secret Service (USSS). Law enforcement subsequently obtained a search warrant for Maples' Facebook account and cellular phone, which confirmed that Maples received child pornography.

U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Tennessee, Francis M. Hamilton III, and FBI Special Agent in Charge, Joseph E. Carrico made the announcement.

The criminal information was the result of an investigation by the FBI and the USSS.

Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Kolman represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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 Attorney's Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC 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 PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab "resources."

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