Alexandria man convicted for possessing child porn and violating parole

A 58-year-old Alexandria man who spent years behind bars for possession of child pornography now faces at least 10 more years in prison after being convicted Thursday for the same offense in federal court.

James B. Clawson, Sr., was convicted in 2009 for possession of child pornography after it was discovered that he was the administrator for a forum dedicated to spreading around child porn. Clawson was on supervised release when, in July 2019, his probation officer found a laptop in a hidden shelf in his home, as well as multiple thumb drives with images of children having sex.

“The evidence at trial demonstrated that the defendant’s prior conviction for distributing child pornography unfortunately did not deter him from continuing to seek out such heartbreaking and illegal images,” said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Thanks to the diligent efforts of the trial team and our law enforcement partners, the defendant has been held accountable for his recidivist conduct by a jury of his peers.”

Clawson faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison when sentenced on December 1, according to Parekh’s office.

The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, with help from the High Technology Investigative Unit of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.