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THOMAS
REEDY
Thomas Reedy was born in a small town in central
Texas. Like many teenagers, he has said that he
dreamed of becoming a rock star, but ended up studying
nursing and worked in several hospitals before he
taught himself how to program computers in the early
‘90s.
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Reedy quickly saw the
financial possibilities in computers and set up
an Internet adult porn business. It was lucrative
for him, but he soon realized he could make even
more money by tapping into the child pornography
industry. So that’s what he did. Reedy called
his company Landslide Productions.
His wife, Janice, worked as the company’s
bookkeeper. She, too, was considered a computer
whiz. They began dating in 1996, and when they married
a year later, they were both on their third marriage.
LANDSLIDE PRODUCTIONS
For two years, Landslide Productions took in almost
$10 million. The couple lived in a $500,000 house
on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas, and both
drove Mercedes sports cars. During the raid on their
house in 1999, police found dozens of computers
and several servers which, once analyzed, led them
to a list of 300,000 customers in 37 states and
60 countries. The Landslide website made the Reedys
millionaires. Subscribers to Landslide paid $29.95
each to access the child porn websites. The month
before the couple was arrested, their company made
1.4 million dollars.
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Thomas Reedy did not actually produce
the child pornography himself. He acted as the middleman,
providing a website to advertise material that was
being published by other people, called webmasters,
in countries such as Indonesia and Russia.
Authorities in the United States say
Reedy never believed he was doing anything wrong
and never thought he would get caught. His own email
address was Houdini. His downfall began in April
of 1999 when several people complained about coming
across his site and noticing child pornography.
He blatantly advertised what he was selling on his
web page: “click here for Child Porn,”
it said.
THE COURT CASE
In court, Reedy and his lawyer argued, among other
things, that the foreign webmasters were responsible
for publishing the material, not Reedy, and therefore
he was not responsible for its content. The jury
did not agree and they found him guilty on all 89
counts for which he was charged, including conspiracy
to distribute child pornography and possession of
child pornography.
In August of 2001, a judge sentenced him to 1335
years in prison. His wife, Janice, who was convicted
on 87 counts, received a sentence of 14 years. Reedy’s
lawyer appealed Thomas’ sentence calling it
harsh, and a judge recently reduced his time to
180 years behind bars.
Ironically, prior to their trials,
Texas prosecutors offered Thomas and Janice Reedy
a deal. Thomas Reedy was offered a 20-year term
and Janice was offered a five-year term in exchange
for helping authorities convict the actual people
who were providing the child pornography. The Reedy’s
believed they had done nothing wrong and declined
the offer. Their cases went to trial and they were
convicted and sentenced.
Thomas Reedy and his wife, Janice
are now serving their sentences in prison.
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