30-Year Prison Sentence For Youth Mentor Who Produced Child Porn

SPOKANE, WA — A former youth mentor from Kennewick was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison for producing child pornography over the course of 20 years that depicted three children he knew and was ostensibly mentoring.

Shane Gordon Black, 63, in December 2018 pleaded guilty to three counts of producing child pornography. Other charges that included distributing and possessing child pornography were dropped as part of his plea deal. Following his prison sentence, however, Black will spend the remainder of his life on court supervision.

Black is also required to forfeit nearly $500,000 in fines and other fees.

"Prosecuting those who would produce pornographic images of vulnerable minors is a priority of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington," U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington said in a statement. "The sentence imposed in this case serves as a stern warning to offenders that you will be held accountable for your actions. I commend the dedicated work of the federal, state and local law enforcement officers who investigated this case."

Black was accused of producing child pornography at his home between 2002 and 2016. According to court documents, investigators found more than 660 images and seven videos showing three children engaged in various sex acts. The three kids were either neighbors or children Black met during his time working for Ignite Youth Mentoring in Richland. He reportedly produced the pornography at his home and during trips to Oregon he took alone with the kids.

Incidentally, a former Ignite Youth Mentoring executive director in 2017 was also arrested as part of a Missing and Exploited Children Task force-led sex sting in the Tri-Cities that targeted individuals who allegedly wanted to sexually assault children. It's unclear whether that person and Black were familiar with each other's deviancies, though Black was found to have shared several of his pornographic productions through a peer-to-peer sharing program.