Spokane, Washington – First Assistant United States Attorney Pete Serrano announced that on September 14, 2026, United States District Court Judge Mary K. Dimke sentenced Cecil Lloyd Ramey, age 48, of Kennewick, to 15 years of imprisonment, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release, for the Receipt and Possession of Child Pornography.
According to information disclosed in court documents and during court proceedings, in March of 2022, Ramey came to the attention of the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (SER-ICAC) due to two CyberTips from Google. The CyberTips detailed hundreds of image and video files of suspected child pornography located in a Google account determined to belong to Ramey. At the time, Ramey resided at a residence in Kennewick with his wife and her child.
SER-ICAC detectives obtained a search warrant for the content of Ramey’s Google account. During a review of the content of Ramey’s Google account, detectives located hundreds of images and videos of child pornography. Some of the images and videos depicted images and videos depicting children identified in previous investigations and known to law enforcement. However, other image and video files depicted the sexual abuse of a prepubescent child by Ramey and were new to investigators. SER-ICAC detectives worked to find and identify this prepubescent child, ultimately discovering that Ramey had sexually abused the child when he resided in another state. Detectives also learned that Ramey used his position of trust with this prepubescent child to facilitate the sexual abuse and memorialize the abuse in both image and video form. Ramey then possessed this material for more than a decade, ultimately uploading the videos and images to his Google account in 2022.
A search warrant was executed at Ramey’s residence, and his electronic devices were seized. Ultimately, the investigation revealed that Ramey had stored image and video files depicting the sexual abuse of the identified prepubescent child and other minor children, on electronic storage devices in his home, and within his Google account. Ramey was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington for the conduct that occurred in Washington state- the receipt and possession of child pornography- and pled guilty to those offenses in February of 2026.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Dimke spoke of the bravery of the prepubescent child, who had disclosed Ramey’s sexual abuse to another adult immediately after it occurred, to no avail. Although Ramey wrote a letter to the prepubescent child at the time of his arrest stating, “I have spent all these years try [sic] to forget the past. And live a better future. I pray, the things I did to you, you were not aware of and it has had no effect on your life,” Judge Dimke advised Ramey that the minor children he victimized, personally and through trafficking their sexual abuse images and videos, would relive their experiences for the rest of their lives.
“Today’s conviction underscores the critical work of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in our district,” said Serrano. “What began as an investigation into the possession of known child pornography, morphed into a mission to identify a previously unknown child, whose sexual abuse was memorialized by her abuser, Ramey. Thanks to the dedication of our investigators and prosecutors, we were able to uncover the truth and bring this horrendous offender to justice. Our office remains committed to protecting children, pursuing those who harm them, and ensuring that victims receive the support they deserve.”
“Crimes against children are among the most heinous someone can commit,” said Acting HSI Seattle Special Agent in Charge April Miller. “Ramey’s abuse of his position of ‘trust’ within the family makes his actions that much worse. This sentence gets a predator off the street and will hopefully allow this child to get the help needed from these traumatic acts. We will not stop finding and investigating predators like Ramey; we owe this to our children and communities.”
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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc. This case was investigated by the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Laurel J. Holland.