Federal judges recently sentenced defendants for child sexual exploitation and methamphetamine crimes, according to a news release from the Wyoming U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson sentenced Joshua Aaron Stevens, 35, of Cheyenne to 22 years imprisonment for sexual exploitation of a child.

Johnson also sentenced him to a lifetime of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $500 fine and a $100 special assessment. Restitution will be determined at a later date.

This case was investigated by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Office of Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the amended complaint filed by prosecutors on Aug. 8, 2015, a Washington, D.C., undercover police officer investigating child pornography received an email on Aug. 7 from a man asking about sex with a underage girl. The man, later identified at Stevens, also identified the girl and sent a live picture.

The undercover officer sent an emergency disclosure request to the communications company about Stevens' email address, and the FBI also sent a similar request to another communications company. Those requests determined Stevens lived in Cheyenne.

Because of the emergency nature of Stevens' immediate relationship to the victim, law enforcement in Cheyenne contacted him as he was walking with the girl victim to a hospital to meet his wife. An officer confiscated the cell phone Stevens had and moved the girl away from him.

After waiving his Miranda rights, Stevens admitted to taking images of the girl and sending them to the undercover officer in Washington, D.C. The girl was wearing a shirt that was seen in one of the images.

The redacted amended complaint did not identify the relationship between the girl and Stevens.

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In a separate case, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal sentenced Joe Cruz Proo, 46, of, Riverton for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Proo received six years nine months imprisonment, to be followed by five years of probation. Freudenthal also ordered him to pay a $200 special assessment and $500 in restitution.

This case was investigated by the Riverton Police Department, the DCI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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