TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA – Charles Eric Love, 56, of Tallahassee, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting child pornography using a means or facility of interstate commerce. The plea was announced by John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
U.S. Attorney Heekin said: “I deeply appreciate the excellent investigative work of our state and federal law enforcement partners who tracked down this disgusting criminal so my office could bring him to justice on behalf of the innocent children who were exploited and sexually abused in the thousand of image and videos of child sexual abuse material that he possessed. These crimes are truly abhorrent and my office will continue to prosecute the predators like this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”
Court documents reflect that on March 19, 2025, detectives with the Tallahassee Police Department received seven cyber tips by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. On March 28, 2025, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s Dropbox account, and on April 4, 2025, search warrants were executed at Love’s apartment, house, and office. Multiple electronic devices were seized. A subsequent forensic analysis of the seized devices and online accounts identified over 1,000 of images and video files containing child pornography.
Love faces a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment and up to twenty years’ imprisonment and a lifetime of supervision upon release.
The case involved a joint investigation by Tallahassee Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eric W. Welch
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice and led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), it marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov .
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida, visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl .
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Northern District of Florida — U.S. Department of Justice press release.