A 72-year-old Pedophile from Skagit County, Alan Lewis Meirhofer, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 15 years in prison for the receipt and possession of child sexual abuse photos, as announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. Alan Lewis Meirhofer is a recidivist violent sexual offender who was civilly committed to the McNeil Island sexual predator correctional facility for a duration of seventeen years. He has remained in detention since his 2021 arrest for possessing photographs of child sexual assault. During the sentence hearing, U.S. District Judge John H. Chun stated, “This case encompasses profoundly serious, grievous, and distressing offenses.”
“Subsequent to his discharge from civil commitment, Mr. Alan Lewis Meirhofer modified his predatory conduct to incorporate contemporary technology,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Miller. “He exploited minors through the internet.” Within a span of slightly more than two years, there were 14 cyber reports submitted to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding his sexual exploitation of minors through Google and Instagram.
Records submitted in the case indicate that Alan Lewis Meirhofer cultivated friendships with adolescent males in the Skagit County region by inviting them to his home, where he offered them “gifts” included food, clothing, wine, cash, and marijuana. Upon borrowing Alan Lewis Meirhofer’s phone, one of the guys observed that Alan Lewis Meirhofer had dispatched photographs of his buddies to members of a group chat. The adolescent also encountered images of child sexual exploitation on the device. The adolescent’s mother notified law enforcement, resulting in Meirhofer’s arrest in March 2021, during which his electronic devices were confiscated.
An analysis of the devices indicated that Alan Lewis Meirhofer both received and disseminated child sexual abuse material while acting as the administrator of a Telegram group exclusively dedicated to the distribution of child pornography and the orchestration of pedophilic connections between adults and adolescents. Investigators also discovered profoundly unsettling conversations with kids. Alan Lewis Meirhofer was soliciting and financing sexually obscene photographs. The agent identified Alan Lewis Meirhofer’s attempts to “entrap” the youngsters with associates who are registered sex offenders.
In 1988, Meirhofer was found guilty of burglary, kidnapping, and rape. Alan Lewis Meirhofer unlawfully entered a minimum of four residences, severing telephone lines and assaulting 13-year-old children at knifepoint. A victim was pursued and subsequently abducted from his residence in Bellingham. In 1990, Alan Lewis Meirhofer was found guilty of First Degree Burglary while armed with a deadly weapon and Second Degree Assault. In 2000, Alan Lewis Meirhofer was civilly committed to the Civil Commitment Centre for sexually violent predators on McNeil Island. He was released in 2017 as a level 3 registered sex offender, the classification associated with the highest risk of recidivism.
In asking for a 15-year prison sentence Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson wrote to the court, “Alan Lewis Meirhofer comes before this Court for sentencing like no other defendant. His prior convictions and relevant conduct demonstrate he is the very worst thing that can happen to a child. Alan Meirhofer represents every parent’s worst nightmare and every child’s boogeyman. Decades of incarceration did not deter him from sexually exploiting children at the first opportunity provided. Alan Lewis Meirhofer never engaged in sexual deviancy treatment while on McNeil Island because he never intended to stop feeding his deviancy. Alan Lewis Meirhofer learned to utilize technology in order to ferret out new paths to abuse children despite his age, appearance, and poor physical condition.”
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. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood 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.justice.gov/psc.
The case is being investigated by the FBI, the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, the Bellingham Police Department, and the Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson.
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