Springfield child porn solicitor sentenced to 15 years in prison

He sought to take explicit images of young girls.

A Springfield man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children.

James M. Goodman, 44, of Springfield, spoke online for weeks with undercover agents about explicit images of girls aged 10-13, according to court documents.

Goodman was arrested in May 2010, when he arrived at a suburban Columbus meeting he thought was to take photographs of girls of that age. He pleaded guilty to a single charge Sept. 30, 2011.

Since September, the court has researched Goodman and his past to determine the proper sentencing, said Fred Alverson, a law enforcement staff member at the U.S. attorney’s office.

Using a warrant after the arrest, police searched Goodman’s home and found more than 100 illegal images of minors.

“Rather than rolling out a bunch of different charges, it was used to prosecute on the other charge,” Alverson said. “The way the law is set up, our duty is to prosecute the most serious, readily proveable offense.”

A child pornography task force based in Franklin County spotted a Craigslist ad Goodman had placed in April 2010 that “used language commonly associated with child pornography,” according to a media release.

A member of the task force posed as the guardian of two potential victims for a meeting they scheduled.

Since his arrest, Goodman has been an inmate at Pickaway County Jail on a contract with U.S. Marshals.

Time served will be taken off his 15-year sentence, which ends with five years of court supervision and a lifetime as a registered sex offender.

Goodman will be moved to a federal prison once the bureau of prisons finds a place for him, Alverson said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0353 or at bsmith@coxohio.com.

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