Moscow man sentenced 15 years for child pornography

U.S. District Court sentenced a 39-year-old Moscow man to 15 years in federal prison Tuesday for distributing child pornography.

According to U.S. Attorney’s Office news release, Joshua Jay Downer was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release following his prison sentence and pay $12,000 in restitution to four victims. He will be required to register as a sex offender.

“The defendant in this case earned every day of his sentence,” said U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit in a statement.

Downer was investigated in February 2024 following a tip that somebody was using an email service to distribute child pornography from multiple related email addresses. Law enforcement traced the email addresses to a Moscow address where Downer lived.

Downer was already a registered sex offender on federal supervision for a prior child porn conviction.

Downer was prohibited from possessing a tablet while on federal supervision and he was using that tablet to store and distribute numerous images and videos of child sexual abuse.

The Moscow Police Department, the Latah County Sheriff’s Office, the Lewiston Police Department, the Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were involved in the investigation.

Chief U.S. District Judge David Nye ordered the sentence.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.