FORMER
TEACHER SENTENCED TO MORE THAN TWENTY
YEARS IN PRISON ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of
Oklahoma, announced today that MARK D. RICE, 50, of Oklahoma City, has
been sentenced to 262 months in prison for producing and possessing child
pornography.
During 2001, Mr.
Rice was employed as a teacher at ASTEC, a charter school in Oklahoma
City. In November of that year, the Oklahoma City Police Department arrested
Mr. Rice based on complaints from the school relating to child pornography
and recovered numerous images of child pornography at his residence. He
has been incarcerated since December 6, 2001, primarily at the Oklahoma
County Jail.
Mr. Rice pled guilty
to four child-pornography felonies on May 6, 2002. These crimes included
taking pornographic photographs of a very young child at his apartment
in Oklahoma City, transporting across state lines a videotape that he
made of himself engaging in sexual conduct in the presence of child when
he worked as a teacher in Mississippi, and possessing compact discs containing
images of child pornography. On December 4, 2002, he was sentenced to
262 months in prison for those offenses.
After this first
sentence was imposed, Mr. Rice appealed unsuccessfully the legality of
the search of his apartment. The case was remanded for re-sentencing,
however, because of intervening changes in federal sentencing law handed
down by the U.S. Supreme Court. On May 26, 2006, Mr. Rice asked the district
court in Oklahoma City for permission to withdraw his guilty pleas. After
hearing two full days of evidence in August of 2007, the district court
denied that motion. Today the court imposed the same sentence as it did
more than five years ago: 262 months in prison, to be followed by three
years of supervised release. In imposing this sentence, the court concluded
that a sentence above that recommended by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
was appropriate.
In responding to
the decision today, United States Attorney John C. Richter stated: "Child
exploitation destroys innocent lives. In reflection of that reality, the
Court today again concluded that Mr. Rice is an unrepentant child predator
and imposed a very lengthy sentence. I hope that this sentence will serve
as a strong message to those who are thinking about doing this to another
child."
This case is the
result of an investigation conducted by the Oklahoma City Police Department
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant
U.S. Attorneys David L. Walling, Scott E. Williams, and Randal A. Sengel.
|
