His Computers Had

Videos, Pictures

Of Underage Boys

ByBILLJONES

StaffWriter

MichaelEugeneNoel, 38, the former boys' basketball coach at Clinch School in Hawkins County, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Monday afternoon to 26 years (312 months) in federal prison.

Noel had pleaded guilty here last April 16 to receipt of thousands of child pornography images and impeding the administration of justice.

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer, imposed the sentence, which was near the top of the federal advisory guideline range of 262 to 327 months, at the conclusion of a more than two-hour sentencing hearing.

Rick Spivey, the Kingsport attorney who represented Noel, had asked the court to impose a sentence of no more than 15 years. However, Judge Greer rejected the request.

In imposing sentence, Judge Greer said Noel had abused his position of authority as a teacher and coach.

For his part, Noel apologized, saying he was "truly sorry" for his actions. He said it was not possible "to put into words how truly sorry I am."

"Everybody who has ever known me I have disappointed and let down," Noel said.

He also said he had had a "dream job" as a teacher and coach. "And I ruined it," Noel said.

Later in the sentencing hearing, Judge Greer said that while he believed Noel was remorseful, he believed that remorse by defendants in cases such as Noel's often results from having been caught and prosecuted.

He also faces related charges in state court in Sullivan County.

'Thousands' Of Images

"The defendant stipulated in the plea agreement that the 110 videos and 1,074 still images on his computers are child pornography as defined by (federal law), and the probation officer confirmed, this stipulation when she viewed a sampling of the images," Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Smith wrote in a sentencing memorandum to the court.

In court on Monday afternoon, Smith said the total number of child pornography images that Noel possessed on two computers (counting individual video frames) exceeded 9,000.

A plea agreement signed by Noel earlier this year noted that "between March 21, 2006 and June 28, 2007, the defendant knowingly received child pornography ... that had been shipped and transported in interstate commerce, by computer via the Internet, a means of interstate commerce."

The agreement also said computers and computer hard drives owned by Noel contained numerous images of clild pornography.

"In total, the two computers and their hard drives contained 110 videos containing child pornography," the plea agreement said. "Fifty-eight the 110 videos were longer than five minutes in length. The videos also depicted child bondage [and] children engaged in sadomasochistic sexually explicit conduct."

In addition to the videos, the two computers contained a total of 1,074 still images of child pornography, the plea agreement said.

Plan To Destroy Computers

The plea agreement also indicates that Noel attempted to hide and destroy the computers on which images of child pornography were stored after being advised that Kingsport police planned to place separate charges against him in state court in Sullivan County.

"On June 28, 2007, Detective Melanie Adkins of the Kingsport Police Department telephoned the defendant (Noel) and advised him that she had obtained a warrant for his arrest for four counts of child sexual exploitation under Tennessee law, based on the written statement he provided Detective Adkins on the previous day, June 27, 2007," the plea agreement said.

"Detective Adkins asked the defendant to meet her at his home, to serve the warrant. After receiving this information, the defendant [Noel] removed the two computers and two hard drives; disconnected the Internet cables for the computers; and removed all of the computers, hard drives, and accessories and attempted to conceal their existence by storing them with an individual who lacked knowledge about the contents of the computers and hard drives."

The plea agreement also indicated that Noel also "defaced one of the computers and attempted to disable or destroy it by hitting it with a hammer."

"At the time the defendant attempted to conceal and destroy and disable the computers and hard drives, a judicial proceeding was pending against him in Sullivan County Criminal Court captioned State of Tennessee v. Michael Eugene Noel, No. S54,213 and the defendant had knowledge of the pending judicial proceeding at the time he concealed and defaced the computers and hard drives," the plea agreement said.

"The defendant corruptly intended to obstruct and impede the pending judicial proceeding in Sullivan County Criminal Court on June 28, 2007, when he concealed, defaced, and disabled the computers and hard drives. The defendant's concealment, defacement, and disabling of the computers could have interfered with the due administration of justice in the pending Sullivan County Criminal Court judicial proceeding," the agreement said.

In a sentencing memorandum filed with the court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Smith asked that the court to impose a sentence of at least 27 years.

"A reasonable sentence for this defendant would be within the advisory guideline range of 324 to 405 months imprisonment," Smith wrote.

He said, "A guideline range sentence is sufficient but not more than necessary to reflect the nature and circumstances of the offense, the history and characteristics of the defendant, the seriousness of the offense, to afford adequate deterrence, to protect the public from further crimes perpetrated by the defendant, and to provide the defendant with needed treatment for pedophilia.

"The defendant has no financial ability to pay a fine. The Court should impose supervised release for the life of the defendant and order the defendant to comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act for the remainder of his life, upon his release from imprisonment."

The pre-sentence report exhaustively details the Noel's deviant sexual behavior, which includes inappropriate sexual contact with adolescent boys. It said Noel preyed upon six boys who are socially and economically disadvantaged and who lack fathers in their homes.

"The defendant placed himself in situations which allowed contact with adolescent children, including staff membership at the Kingsport Boys and Girls Club and staff membership at the Eastman Recreation Center.

"When parents of his adolescent boy victims initiated an investigation by local lawenforcement authorities, the defendant knowingly attempted to impede the investigation. He attempted to conceal the instrumentalities of his offense and asked another educator (who was totally innocent of the charges) to destroy his computers.

"The very large quantity of the child pornography collection owned by the defendant and the fact that most of the children depicted are male, indicates that the defendant is a pedophile with homosexual tendencies. Much of his child pornography includes bondage and other painful behavior, evidencing the defendant's interest in deviant erotica."

The prosecutor continued, "The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has identified at least seven identified victims among the defendant's large child pornography collection.

"There is no evidence that the defendant can be deterred from sexually deviant behavior, other than incarceration. Moreover, the defendant's acknowledged sexual arousal from contact with adolescent boys indicates that the defendant cannot control his deviant behavior without psychosexual treatment.

"A guideline sentence will serve as a warning to other sexual deviants to control their aberrant behavior."