A federal grand jury in Alaska returned an indictment charging an Anchorage man with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
According to court documents, between July 2018 and August 2021, Michael Vernon Ross, 31, allegedly used and coerced a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography.
Ross made his initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kyle F. Reardon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska and is currently being detained at Anchorage Correctional Complex. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 to 30 years in prison on each count of production of child pornography. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker of the District of Alaska made the announcement.
The FBI and Anchorage Police Department are investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seth Brickey-Smith and Adam Alexander are prosecuting the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.