United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Virginia ALEXANDRIA     NEWPORT NEWS      NORFOLK     RICHMOND UNITED STATES ATTORNEY CHUCK ROSENBERG
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jim Rybicki Public Information Officer Phone: (703) 842-4050 Fax: (703) 549-5202 E-Mail: usavae.press@usdoj.gov Website: www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae		July 6, 2007

Maryland Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Enticement of a Minor

(Alexandria, VA) – Willard Temple Acker, age 53, of Edgewater, Maryland, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sexual conduct. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Washington Field Office, made the announcement following Acker’s sentencing by United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

Acker also was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release, which will commence following his prison term. He will also be required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction in which he lives or works.

According to court documents, Acker began an instant message chat on February 21, 2007, with a person whom he believed to be a thirteen-year-old girl, from Fairfax, Virginia. In fact, Acker was communicating with an undercover FBI agent. Within 15 minutes of beginning the chat, Acker asked the girl’s age, what she looked like, and whether he could travel to her home that afternoon to engage in illicit sexual conduct with her.

Acker was arrested on February 22, 2007, after traveling by vehicle from his Edgewater, Maryland home to Falls Church, Virginia, where he had arranged to meet the child. Law enforcement agents recovered from Acker’s vehicle his laptop computer, with the on-line chat displayed on its screen, a bottle of wine, suspected marijuana, a condom, and suspected erectile dysfunction medication.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, and Innocent Images Initiative Task Force members from the Fairfax County Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Edward J. McAndrew, who is on detail from the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice.