Man gets eight years for child porn

An Olney-area man will spend eight years and a month in federal prison on child pornography charges.

Dennis N. Bartolini, 60, of Radnor, was sentenced Friday by Chief U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy in Missoula.

He was charged with distribution of child pornography, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

The FBI began investigating Bartolini in 2000. Agents found that he e-mailed child pornography images to people and gave computer images to someone else. He also showed images to a nephew.

In Bartolini's home, officers found computer images of children under the age of 12 and images that would be considered sadistic or masochistic and other depictions of violence, according to officials. Bartolini admitted e-mailing child pornography, and had downloaded and saved images from the Internet for a year and a half.

The federal investigation also led to allegations of sexual contact with children. Bartolini admitted that and was charged in state court with two counts of sexual assault. District Judge Stewart Stadler, in 2003, sentenced Bartolini to 20-year terms with 18 suspended on each count, to run concurrently.

After he is released from prison, Bartolini will be on federal supervision for five years and will forever have to register as a sex offender.

Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, said Friday he is satisfied with the sentence. At 97 months, it is at the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines range, he said. Those guidelines were recently ruled to be discretionary and not mandatory by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mercer said he's pleased the sentence is within the range. It's set high because Congress and the sentencing commission take child pornography, especially its distribution, very seriously, he said.

There is empirical evidence that child pornography and sex crimes against children are linked, Mercer said. Bartolini's case is an example, he said.