Yakima, Washington – Vanessa R. Waldref, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that Christopher Lee Osborn, age 32, was sentenced after pleading guilty to Distribution of Child Pornography. United States District Judge Mary K. Dimke imposed a sentence of ninety-six months imprisonment to be followed by fifteen years of supervised release and lifetime registration as a sex offender.
According to court documents and information disclosed at sentencing, in April of 2021, Osborn used the KIK app to send images and videos of child pornography to an undercover agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The images included young children being sexually assaulted.
On April 16, 2021, HSI executed a search warrant at a home in Yakima where Osborn lived and seized several electronic devices. During the search, agents recovered 48 images or videos of child pornography, including the images sent to the HSI agent. Osborn had previously been arrested on September 18, 2020, and charged in Yakima County Superior Court with First Degree Possession of Depictions of Minor Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct under Washington State law based upon a separate investigation. He pleaded guilty to two counts of that charge in January 2024, and has been sentenced to a ninety-six-month sentence which will run concurrently with his sentence in this Federal case.
“Prosecutors, law enforcement, educators, parents, and community stakeholders must be vigilant in protecting the most innocent among us,” stated U.S. Attorney Waldref. “Our law enforcement team will continue to tirelessly pursue those who use technology to harm young children. By prosecuting these cases, we protect children and vulnerable populations, thereby strengthening Eastern Washington families and communities.”
“Thanks to the unwavering collaboration with our law enforcement partners, including the invaluable assistance of the Yakima Police Department, HSI agents have successfully apprehended and put a stop to the distribution of child exploitation images,” said Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees HSI operations in the Pacific Northwest. “This sentence is as much as a service to the victims as it is a promise to the community to protect children wherever threats may be hiding.”
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Yakima Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Michael Murphy, Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.
