Chancellor Fire Volunteer Sentenced on Child Porn Charges

A former Chancellor Volunteer Fire and Rescue volunteer and Aquia Harbour police officer will spend 250 months in prison for producing child pornography of a friend's 8-year-old child.

William Hurlbut, 29, had an affinity for child pornography since he was a teenager. He will serve 25 years of supervised probation when he is released from prison. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Neil H. MacBride made the sentencing announcement Oct. 6.

“Mr. Hurlbut is a child predator who befriended the victim’s family and groomed the young child for years leading up to the assault,” MacBride said in a press release. “Few crimes are as heinous as sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy, and we are committed to putting these predators behind bars to protect our kids.”    

On June 30, Hurlbut pleaded guilty to producing child pornography. In a statement of facts court document, Hurlbut admitted performing sexual acts with a sleeping or unconscious 8-year-old boy and filming those acts with his iPhone in 2009. Hurlbut knew the boy since he was a baby. On Sept. 29, 2010, police searched Hurlbut's home and found more than 1,000 images and more than 1,000 videos of child porn, including some with the victim sitting on a toilet or bending over. 

Hurlbut denied that there was any penetration and he denied that he administered drugs to the victim, according to court records. The complete document is sealed because it contains "private information about the defendant's mental health." He also objected to the labeling of the charge as an“offense involv[ing] material that portrays sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence."

"According to investigative reports from the day of his arrest, Mr. Hurlbut admitted to agents openly that he began downloading child pornography when he was 14, though he did not know why he liked it," court records state. "On the day of his arrest, Mr. Hurlbut told agents that he knew he needed to stop [downloading child pornography] when he became a cop, and had tried to quit several times."

His behavior went undetected for years chiefly because he did not have a prior criminal record, which helped him get numerous high-profile jobs that involved him being close to children.

He started volunteering with Chancellor in 2002 and was hired by Life Care
Medical Transport, a company owned by Chancellor Volunteer Fire and Rescue Administrative Chief Kevin Dillard. Hurlbut met the victim's mother at LifeCare and they became close friends. Hurlbut helped care for the woman's two children and often attended their sporting events. During this time, he also worked as a server at Red Lobster in Spotsylvania, as a third grade teacher at an after-school daycare, as an emergency room coordinator at Mary Washington Health Care and a driver for Emergystat, all jobs he said he needed to help support his friend and her two children. 

Chancellor Volunteer Fire and Rescue has had a string of problems lately involving members being charged with crimes. In May, Dillard said the department was going to evaluate membership policies on screening volunteers in addition to having a committee perform background and reference checks. In May, another Chancellor volunteer was charged with rape.

The sentencing guidelines for Hurlbut recommended a range of 324 months to 360 months in prison. Hurlbut requested a sentence of no more than 180 months, which is the mandatory minimum for this offense.

"Until this case, he has never spent a single night in jail or prison and the effect his current detention has had on him has been profound. A sentence of more than fifteen years is unlikely to offer any greater protection to the public, given the likelihood of Mr. Hurlbut’s success with proper treatment, his high motivation to change his behavior, and his public acknowledgment that his behavior was wrong and criminal," court records state.

Spotsylvania County Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Neely indicated after Hurlbut pleaded guilty that he was going to prosecute him for possession or reproduction of child pornography, which carries a sentencing range of five to 20 years in prison.

The Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office and the Northern Virginia/District of Columbia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigated the case.

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. For more information on the program, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.