Last January, an FBI agent based in Maryland was cruising through a peer-to-peer file-sharing network in search of child porn. There, he stumbled upon a user named "Classybitch," who offered him access to several hundred videos and images with file names like "Taboo Incest - Grampa Fucks Sleeping Girl Pedo Pthc Porn" and "2yo+mom+dad." He downloaded seven.
Three months later, federal agents showed up at a $1.4 million University Park McMansion with a search warrant and arrested "Classybitch," aka Erika Susan Perdue, the 42-year-old wife of an intellectual property attorney. According to court documents filed at the time, she admitted to sharing massive amounts of child porn, so much that she couldn't recall sharing those seven files with the FBI agent, or several more with another undercover law enforcement officer. She did it every day while her husband was at work, she explained, and had done so since about 1999.
See also: Judge: No More Delays in Trial of University Park Woman Accused of Distributing Child Porn
Perdue's case has since wound its way through the federal court system. She was briefly released to attend sex offender-specific treatment at a rehab facility in Argyle, but was taken back to prison after attempting suicide. At one point, worried neighbors reported seeing her in her neon green Camaro with the vanity "My Syn" license plates driving around the Park Cities, but they were mistaken.
When she was indicted last year, Perdue pleaded not guilty to transporting and shipping child pornography. She reversed course on Tuesday, pleading guilty in exchange for a 14-year prison sentence. She will also have to pay $5,000 to "Vicky," who was identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as one of the children in the video.
