A 43-year-old registered sex offender from SeaTac, Washington was indicted today by a federal grand jury for distributing images of child rape via Twitter, announced U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes.
Danny Zimmerman, was arrested in June 2015, after an investigation traced images of child rape to Zimmerman’s twitter account and his internet protocol (IP) address. Zimmerman has been in custody following his arrest on state charges. He will be arraigned on the indictment in U.S. District Court in Seattle today at 2:00 p.m.
According to records filed in King County Superior Court and in U.S. District Court, between September 2014 and February 2015, Twitter made multiple reports to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) about images of child rape uploaded to the internet. The reports resulted in a law enforcement investigation involving Western Washington’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The investigation revealed that the internet address involved in the distribution of the sexually explicit images was used by Zimmerman. The investigation revealed that Zimmerman has two 1996 convictions for child molestation in the first degree.
Due to the prior convictions, Zimmerman faces a mandatory minimum 15 years in prison if convicted of Distribution of Visual Depictions of Minors Engaging in Sexually Explicit Conduct.
The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case was investigated by the Internet Crimes against Children Task Force, the Kent Police Department and the King County Sheriff’s Office.
The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson. Gregson is a Senior Deputy King County Prosecutor specially designated to prosecute child exploitation cases in federal court.
