ALVIN, Texas – A 33-year-old Alvin resident accused of having over 35,000 child pornography files has been ordered to federal prison for nearly 18 years following his conviction, the Department of Criminal Justice announced Wednesday.
Michael Crisp Jr. pleaded guilty to distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography on March 31, 2022. He was ordered to serve 210 months for distributing and receiving child pornography and 120 months for possessing it. The sentences will run concurrently for a total 210-month term of imprisonment, a news release said.
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Before giving Crisp the sentence, Judge Jeffrey V. Brown said that child pornography is “not a victimless crime” and that he received more victim impact statements in this case than in any previous case before him.
Crisp was also ordered to pay a total of $136,500 in restitution to 42 identified victims and must serve 10 years on supervised release after the completion of his prison term, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said. During that time, he will have to comply with several requirements that are designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. Crisp will also be ordered to register as a sex offender, according to the DOJ.
“Crisp hoarded and traded files of child rape, suffering and trauma as if they were some kind of collectors’ item - to the order of tens of thousands,” said Hamdani. “Today’s sentence underscores that consumers of child pornography can and will be held to account for how they fuel demand for more and more images of children suffering unspeakable sexual abuse.”
According to the news release, Crisp first came to the attention of law enforcement after he imported a nine-minute video into his cloud storage account of a woman sexually abusing a toddler. During the investigation, authorities said they found over 29,000 images and 6,500 videos of child porn on multiple devices. The images allegedly showed children as young as the age of 5 in bondage. In addition to possessing child porn, Crisp used messaging applications to trade child sexual abuse material with others, the news release said.
Previously released on bond, Crisp was taken into custody following the sentencing, where he will remain pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility that will be determined in the near future.
“Cases that involve the sexual exploitation of children are some of the toughest cases our agents work,” said Special Agent in Charge James Smith of the FBI Houston Field Office. “Crisp took pleasure from thousands of images and videos depicting the sadistic sexual exploitation, torture and abuse of children, including infants and toddlers. By choosing to receive and disseminate such graphic imagery, Crisp repeatedly re-victimized the victims. While today’s sentence removes one sexual predator from children’s lives, the FBI’s work continues as there are many more like Crisp still out there.”