Jonathan Eugene Loper, 29, was sentenced to 27 years in prison in a federal child porn case. This mugshot is from the Rhea County Sheriff's Department stemming from a 2013 arrest.A Dayton, Tenn., man will spend the next 324 months in federal prison for distributing child pornography after he was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga.
Jonathan Eugene Loper, 29, was convicted on a federal grand jury indictment in February. He pleaded guilty to trading child porn with an individual residing in Canada in 2012 and to posting child porn online for others to download in 2013.
Loper's 27-year sentence was enhanced because of a prior conviction in Rhea County for attempted aggravated sexual battery of a minor. Rhea County Circuit Court officials said the charge was reduced from the original charge of aggravated sexual battery of a minor, a class B felony.
According to court and police records, Loper served six months of a 12-month prison sentence on that conviction. That case, filed in July 2006, involved a then-9-year-old boy who lived with his parents in the same apartment complex as Loper, according to accounts in The Herald-News newspaper in Dayton. There were seven counts in the original charge. Investigators said in 2006 that the child had been going to Loper's apartment to play video games.
Court officials said Wednesday that Loper still owes Rhea County $948 in court costs in that case. The most recent state charge against Loper was in 2013 for violation of community corrections related to the sexual battery conviction in 2007, court officials said. That warrant, which is still valid and unserved, was issued against Loper while he was in custody in Knoxville, officials said.
The federal sentence was handed down by Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan. After Loper's release from prison he will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for a 25-year term and he will be required to register with the sex offender registry in any state in which he lives, works or attends school.
The investigation was conducted by the Knoxville Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.