The longtime chief engineer with the Villages Media Group will spend 20 years behind bars in a child porn case.
Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges has sentenced 53-year-old David Meadows of Leesburg to 20 years in federal prison for distributing child pornography. The court also ordered him to forfeit various computers and electronic devices that he had used to facilitate the offense.
Meadows pleaded guilty on March 17. He was arrested this past September.
Meadows was a fixture for many at radio remote events put on by AM-640 WVLG and with its “Fun Team.” He was frequently the man driving the AM-640 WVLG van around The Villages.
According to court documents, federal agents determined that Meadows had distributed child pornography depicting infants and toddlers via email. The agents traced the activity to Meadows’s residence and executed a search warrant. They also conducted a consent search of his office. Multiple electronic devices, including laptop computers and a cellphone, were seized; forensic analyses confirmed that the devices contained more than 2,800 files depicting child pornography.
“This sentencing underscores the seriousness of the crime of child exploitation,” said Ivan J. Arvelo, acting special agent in charge of HSI Tampa. “HSI special agents will aggressively investigate the predators who target the most vulnerable in our society.”
This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney William S. Hamilton.
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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.
