Little Rock - Jane W. Duke, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced today the sentencing of Michael Shore, age 49, of Hamilton, Ohio. On March 13, 2008, Shore, who was charged in a seven-count second superseding indictment, entered a plea of guilty to receiving child pornography via the internet. The remaining counts were dismissed upon motion of the United States.

As a result of his guilty plea, Shore faced a potential sentence under the United States Sentencing Guidelines of 108-135 months. At sentencing, the United States advocated that a sentence within that Guideline range should be imposed. However, United States District Judge James M. Moody, citing Shore’s community involvement and the testimony of friends and family members, varied from the Guideline range and sentenced Shore to 90 months imprisonment.

The case against Shore originated in July 2006, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a complaint from a citizen in the Heber Springs area regarding the possible exploitation of a seventeen-year-old Arkansas female. The investigation ultimately revealed that Shore, a chiropractor living in Hamilton, Ohio, had begun communicating with over the internet and telephone with the minor when the child was fifteen. The communications continued until Shore’s arrest in September 2006. At the time Shore began communicating with the minor, he told her that he was nineteen. In order to perpetuate this lie, he forwarded the victim a picture of his teenage stepson and claimed that the photograph was Shore’s senior picture. As the relationship continued, Shore told the victim that the photograph was not actually of him. However, he continued to misrepresent his true identity and age to the victim by telling her that he was 27 years old.

During the course of Shore’s communications with the minor, Shore solicited the victim to take sexually explicit pictures of herself and send them to his e-mail account. The minor did, in fact, send multiple sexually explicit pictures of herself to Shore. The investigation further revealed that beginning in March 2006, Shore began traveling to the State of Arkansas to meet the minor. Shore traveled to Arkansas on at least five separate occasions. On each of these occasions, Shore and the minor engaged in sexual conduct. On at least two of those occasions, Shore videotaped the sexual conduct.

Shore’s arrest was effectuated on September 16, 2006 in Conway, Arkansas just as he and the victim were about to drive off the lot of a car dealership. Arresting officers found a video camera in Shore’s possession, as well as one book entitled Total Sex: An Illustrated Guide to the Ultimate Pleasures of Physical Love and another entitled How to Make Love to a Man . The video camera, along with computer equipment owned by Shore, were forfeited as a result of his plea.

After Shore’s arrest, a search warrant was executed at his Ohio residence and his computer and a separate hard drive were seized. A forensic examination of that equipment revealed that, in addition to the pornographic images sent to him by the Arkansas minor, Shore received in excess of 600 other child pornographic images over the internet. Some of the images possessed by Shore involved minors under the age of 12 and still others depicted sadistic and/or masochistic conduct.

In addition to Shore’s 90 month period of incarceration, Shore was sentenced to 15 years supervised release. Special conditions of his supervised release include mental health counseling, sex offender registration, and no contact with minors. Shore, who has remained in custody since his arrest, was immediately remanded to the United States Marshal.

This case was investigated by agents of the Little Rock Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of the Cincinnati, Ohio Division of the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Karen Whatley prosecuted the case.