An Elizabethton woman was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison on charges of producing child pornography using her own children.
Crystal Renee Dawn Poore, 32, of Elizabethton was sentenced three counts of production of child pornography by Judge J. Ronnie Greer in U.S. District Court in Greeneville Monday. Upon her release from prison, Poore will be on supervised release for the remainder of her life. Federal sentences are not subject to parole.
In July 2013 a three-count indictment outlining these charges was returned against Poore by a federal grand jury. Poore pleaded guilty in July 2014 to all three counts.
“This lengthy sentence is a deterrent to others. This defendant will no longer harm these children, nor any others,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Killian in a released statement. “Because of the dedication and investigative skills of the Knoxville Police Department ICAC, the crimes were detected and the children quickly rescued.”
The investigation which led to Poore’s arrest began in July 2013 when the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of the Knoxville Police Department received two cyber tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Both of those tips were submitted to the center by Google Inc., regarding a Google/Picasa account it said contained nearly 70 images believed to be child pornography.
The Knoxville Task Force worked with the Carter County Sheriff’s Department and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and removed the Poore’s three children from the home.
According to federal court documents, Poore admitted to investigators that the photographs featured images of her children — who were ages 2, 6 and 8 at the time of the abuse — and admitted she had taken the photographs.
In addition to the federal charges filed against Poore, on July 15, 2013, a Carter County grand jury handed down a state indictment charging her with aggravated rape of a child, three counts of rape of a child, four counts of incest and eight counts of aggravated sexual battery. The state charges against Poore stem from the same investigation.
Court proceedings on the local charges were placed on hold due to the federal charges taking precedence. Poore’s case is scheduled on the Carter County Criminal Court docket on Jan. 5.