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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

Case Number: 22-80173-CR-Cannon

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff,

vs.

GREGORY MALCOLM GOOD,

Defendant.

___________________________________/

SENTENCING MEMORANDUM AND MOTION

FOR VARIANCE PURSUANT TO SECTION 3553(a)

Pursuant to the factors contained in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a), the Defendant would 

respectfully request this Honorable Court to determine a variance from the Advisory 

Sentencing Guidelines and sentence the Defendant to less than those guidelines. To briefly 

outline the legal background which properly acknowledges the vast discretion of a 

sentencing United States District Court at a time a Defendant stands before this Honorable 

Court for sentencing, undersigned counsel would briefly state as follows:

The Supreme Court and numerous Circuit Courts across the country now encourage 

sentencing courts to exercise their discretion in imposing a justice and fair sentence. See 

Spears v. United States, 555 U.S. 261 (2009); Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338 (2007); 

Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (2007); United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 

(2005). In the sentencing courts exercise of its discretion to fashion an appropriate sentence 

“the sentencing judge [should] consider every convicted person as an individual and every 

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case as a unique study in the human failings that sometimes mitigate, sometimes magnify, 

the crime and the punishment to ensue.” Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81, 113 (1996). 

Booker and its progeny urged a sentencing court to impose a sentence in accordance 

with the factors set forth in 3553(a), recognizing that the advisory United States Sentencing 

Guidelines “now serve as one factor among several that the Courts must consider in 

determining an appropriate sentence.” Kimbrough, 552 U.S. at 90. 

Concominently, there is no presumption that any Guidelines Range in and of itself 

is per se reasonable; instead, the sentencing court itself “must make an individualized 

assessment based on the facts presented”, Gail v. United States, 552 U.S. 28 (2007) at 50. 

The Supreme Court has specifically found that in balancing the Section 3553(a) factors, a 

District Court may determine that, “in the particular case, a within-guideline sentence is 

‘greater than necessary’ to serve the objectives of sentencing”. Kimbrough, 552 U.S. at 

91. As specifically contained in 18 U.S.C. §3553(a), the fundamental principle of 

sentencing is that a Court “shall impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than 

necessary” to meet specific Guideline goals, including the goal of just punishment. 

Therefore, if a District Court were to conclude that there was a sentencing option which, 

pursuant to the Statutory purposes of 3553 which is significantly lower than the Advisory 

Sentencing Guidelines, then the Court has the discretion, the power, and the wherewithal 

to fashion a sentence utilizing those factors wherein the Advisory Sentencing Guidelines 

are only one of many. United States v. Ministro-Tapia, 470 F.3d 137, 142 (2nd Cir. 2006). 

A lengthy term of imprisonment is “not an appropriate means of promoting corrections and 

rehabilitation” in every case that would come before this Honorable Court. 18 U.S.C. 

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§3582(a). . Under this backdrop and history of the law, it is respectfully submitted to this 

Honorable Court that although this is a very serious offense, the specific circumstances that 

bring Mr. Good to this Honorable Court for his sentencing hearing support a downward 

variance from the advisory Sentencing Guidelines.

DEFENDANT’S HISTORY AND FACTS OF THE CASE

1. The Defendant, Gregory Good, having pled guilty to the charges in the 

Indictment and with no plea agreement and no factual objections to the Presentence 

Investigative Report, findings of Advisory Sentencing Guidelines, faces this Honorable 

Court for sentencing with an Advisory Guideline Range of 292 to 365 months in Federal 

Prison. 

2. The Defendant, is an elderly gentleman, almost 75 years of age.

3. Mr. Good has raised six children and worked as an engineer to provide for his 

family.

4. In his later years, the Defendant has suffered from several medical conditions, 

including heart ailments, high blood pressure, and severe depression. 

5. In the last few years the Defendant relocated with his wife to a small town in 

Nevada. He lived there, with his wife, with no friends nor family surrounding him. He 

was isolated with his wife in that home and all of his extended family were thousands of 

miles away.

6. It is during this time that the Defendant’s severe depression became worse and 

he started using the internet as a source of communication with the outside world. It is 

there, in the last few months of his wife’s life, that he found solace in the internet and 

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committed the crimes that he has pled guilty to and is facing this Honorable Court at his 

sentencing hearing.

7. After he moved from Nevada and became involved in the website, before her 

death, he admitted to his wife that he was viewing child pornography on the website. This 

further exacerbated the distance between the two of them, several months before he death.

After she died, he was even further isolated by himself, in a home thousands of miles from 

any family and friends that he may have had all his life.

8. At the age of 75, the Defendant does not retain a long-life expectancy. He is 

facing a 15 year minimum mandatory, which this Court is without discretion to sentence 

below. At a sentence like that, even with modest amounts of good time credit, he will be 

close to 90 years old when he is eligible to face what little life he may have on supervised 

release as a registered sex offender and under the stringent requirements facing such a 

registered sex offender.

9. The Defendant, under the Sentencing Guidelines, is facing at the low end, about 

25 years in Federal prison. That would have him be approximately 100 years old if this 

Honorable Court were to sentence him to the low end of the Guidelines.

10. There are factors here, when analyzed under §3553(a) that would moderate the 

need under the framework of §3553(a), for the Defendant to serve more than the 15 year 

minimum mandatory that Congress created for the crime that he pled guilty to. 

11. It is respectfully requested that this Honorable Court utilize Your Honor’s 

discretion, and sentence the Defendant to the 15 year minimum mandatory, so that he may 

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have some hope that he may spend a few months outside of the Federal prison, to be 

reunited with his family before he perishes.

12. The Defendant has a military service record of approximately 6 years in the 

army. Sometime during that time, in training exercises, he had a large caliber machine gun 

blow up in very close vicinity to his head, and he lost his hearing in one ear. He has an 

unblemished career in the military and was discharged honorably.

13. The Defendant has a history of both service to his community, being very active 

in the sports leagues of his children and community activities. 

14. In fact, the Defendant’s life, it is respectfully requested, should be analyzed in 

balancing the terrible nature of the crimes that he has committed and pled guilty to, with 

the rest of his over 7 decades of unblemished life, with no prior criminal history or record.

15. In the framework of the §3553(a) factors, it is respectfully submitted that there 

is room for some modicum of compassion from this Honorable Court, even when analyzing 

such a serious and reprehensible crime that the Defendant has been a part of.

16. The Defendant did not create the website, he did not set up the way it worked, 

he did not profit by its existence, but in fact gave money to the people that were the actual 

leaders of the website while he was involved in it. 

17. Further, although the undersigned is not minimizing in any way, the seriousness 

of the crimes that he has pled guilty to and committed, nevertheless, he did not have any 

direct contact with children nor is accused in any way of the actual molestation of children 

or actual contact with them.

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18. The Defendant’s family has liquidated his assets, which include an amount of 

equity in the home where he lived in Nevada and a modest bank account. He is virtually 

penniless now, after paying for his legal fees and the costs of moving his personal 

belongings back from Nevada to his family’s home in Kentucky.

In United States v. R.V., (No. 14-cr-0316 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 22, 2016)(Weinstein, J), 

the court outlines a comprehensive and persuasive discussion about how the sentencing 

guidelines for child pornography are excessively high for a case involving possession and 

distribution of child pornography, particularly if the material was possessed and distributed 

through a peer-to-peer network. The 101 page opinion concludes that the punishment 

enhancements under the child pornography sentencing guidelines are not warranted given 

the level of culpability for a defendant that is able to possess the illegal material through 

the internet. The opinion also cites multiple studies regarding the low dangerousness of 

defendants convicted of child pornography possession over the internet. The opinion also 

cites multiple studies regarding the low dangerousness of defendants convicted of child 

pornography possession over the internet. The following points summarize some of the 

reasons given by the R.V. opinion for why the guidelines enhancements result in excessive 

punishment for peer-to-peer users. 1 

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In R.V., the Defendant used a peer-to-peer file sharing network to search obtain and view 

images and videos of child pornography. He also used peer-to-peer software to engage in 

video conversations with teenage females in “chat rooms” to engage in conversations in a 

“sexual manner”. When agents executed a search warrant they found files in his computer 

and in thumb drives containing illicit images and videos of child pornography including 

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a) Nature of the technology in the possession of child pornography offense.

The R.V. opinion notes that child pornography images are readily available through 

every internet technology and has become much easier to acquire over the internet with 

only a few clicks of the mouse, compared to printed pornography or DVD’s which would 

require more time and effort to obtain. “The intensity of deviant sexual interest is likely to 

be greater in those who need to expend more effort to acquire pornography from sources 

other than the internet.” (14-cr-00316, at p. 44)

Peer-to-peer networks are a relatively recent technological development that allow 

users to download files from computers of other users and do not require using chat room 

or emailing others. No personal contact is required between the provider and receiver. I.d.

at 47 (citing Maggie Muething, Inactive Distribution: How the Federal Sentencing 

Guidelines for Distribution of Child Pornography Fail to Effectively Account for Peer-toPeer Networks, 73 Ohio St. L. J. 1485, 1487-88 (2012)). These networks operate by 

directly connecting network participants to one another with use of a centralized server. 

Id. At 47 (citing Audrey Rogers, From Peer-to-Peer Networks to Cloud Computing: How 

Technology is Redefining Child Pornography Laws, 87 S. Johns’ L. Re. 1013, 1031 (2013). 

A user “need only download the compatible software from the internet to become part of 

the network and be able to download digital files from other members of that network” or 

upload or post files to the network. Id. At 47, (citing Rogers, supra.) “A crucial aspect of 

minors under the age of 12. The court sentenced the Defendant to a non-incarceration 

sentence with seven years of strict supervised release and treatment.

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peer-to-peer file sharing is that the default setting for these networks is that downloaded 

files are placed in the user’s ‘shared’ folder, which allows others in the network to access 

the files. A user must affirmatively change his network setting to disable this sharing 

feature. The network is designed to encourage sharing by providing faster downloading if 

the user allows sharing.” Id. At 47-48 (citing Rogers, supra. at 1031).

According to the Sentencing Commission, most of the offenders who are found to 

“distribute” child pornography are “solely engaged in ‘impersonal’ anonymous distribution 

by using an ‘open’ [peer-to-peer] program such as LimeWire, with no two-way 

communication between the offender who distributed and persons who obtained images or 

videos from the offender’s computer.” Id. At 48 (citing U.S. Sentencing Comm’n, Federal 

Child Pornography Offenses, at 150-51.) The rate of offenders who use peer-to-peer file 

sharing to access child pornography has continued to increase in recent years. Id. At 48 

(U.S. Sentencing Comm’n, supra. At 166).

b) Low risk of contact sexual offending and low rate of recidivism.

There is no indication that a Defendant who obtained child pornography on a peerto-peer network poses a risk of hands on contact. R.V. points out that “several reports have 

found that generally child pornography offenders are ‘at low risk to commit hands-on 

sexual assaults of children.’” Id. at 54-44 (citing Austin F. Lee, et al, Predicting Hands-On 

Child Sexual Offenses Among Possessors of Internet Child Pornography, 18 Psych, Pol. & 

Law 644, 668 (2012). RV also noted that: 

W]hile child molesters may possess child pornography, those that possess child 

pornography are generally not likely to engage in contact offenses against children. 

Instead, child molesters are merely a small subset of child pornographers. Or another way 

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to look at it is that child molesters and child pornography offenders are two groups with 

occasional overlap in membership. . . Contrary to what may appear logical, the correlation 

between pedophilia and sexual contact offenses against children is not very strong.

Id., at 55, (quoting Hamilton, The Efficacy of Severe Child Pornography Sentencing: 

Empirical Validity or Political Rhetoric? 22 Stan L. Pol’y Rev. 545, 580-81 (2011) 

(Emphasis added)

Recent research suggests that recidivism rate of child pornography offenders may 

be low, with most child pornography viewers unlikely to engage in future sexual offenses. 

Id. at 55, (Citing Richard Krueger & Meg Kaplan, Non-Contact Sexual Offenses, 

Exhibitionism, Voyeurism, Possession of Child Pornography, and Interacting with 

Children over the Internet (Unpublished manuscript) describing a study of child 

pornography offenders by Seto, Hason & Babchishin, revealing that 4.6 percent of online 

offenders committed a new sexual offense during the 1.5 to 6 year follow-up period: 2.0 

percent committed a contact sexual offense and 3.4 percent committed a new child 

pornography offense.

R.V. also cites the Sentencing Commission’s report Federal Child Pornography 

Offenses’ recidivism study of 610 non-production offenders which showed that the 

offenders’ “general recidivism rate . . . was 30.0 percent during an average follow up period 

of eight and one-half years after offender’s reentry into the community” while the 

offenders’ “known sexual recidivism rate, a subset of the general recidivism rate, was 3.6 

percent.” Id. At 56, (See Sentencing Comm’n Federal Child Pornography Offenses at 310.)

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c) The Sentencing Commission recommends lowering the child pornography 

guidelines for possession cases.

The R.V. opinion points out that the United States Sentencing Commission has 

“voiced concerns with respect to the current Guidelines’ ability to reflect varying degrees 

of culpability given the impact of recent technological changes on the offense of child 

pornography,” and that the Commission actually recommended that the non-production 

child pornography sentencing scheme should be revised to account for recent technological 

changes in offense conduct and emerging social science research about offenders’ behavior 

and histories, and also to better promote the purpose of punishment by account for the 

variations in offenders’ culpability and sexual dangerousness.” Id. At 85, 87-88 (citing 

Sentencing Comm’n Federal Child Pornography Offenses at xvii.)

The Commission’s report, Federal Child Pornography Offenses, completed in 2012, 

was a multi-year examination of “offenders sentenced under the federal sentencing 

guidelines and corresponding penal statutes concerning child pornography offenses.” Id.

At 86, (U.S. Sentencing Comm’n, Federal Child Pornography Offenses, at I). The 

Commission was especially concerned with the guidelines applicable to non-production 

child pornography offenses and the extent to which they managed to meaningfully 

distinguish among different offenders’ level of culpability.” Id. at 86.

One of the factors prompting the Commission to conduct this examination is 

particularly relevant to the problem with the sentencing guidelines in the instant case:

Third, as a result of recent changes in the computer and internet technologies that 

non-production offenders use, the existing sentencing scheme in non-production cases no 

longer adequately distinguishes among offenders based on their degree of culpability. NonCase 9:22-cr-80173-AMC Document 179 Entered on FLSD Docket 08/14/2023 Page 10 of 23
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production child pornography offenses have become almost exclusively internet-enable 

crimes: the typical offender today uses modern internet-based technologies such as peerto-peer (“P2P”) file-sharing programs there were emerging a decade ago and now facilitate 

large collections of child pornography. The typical offenders’ collection not only has 

grown in volume but also contains a wide variety of graphic sexual images (including 

images of very young victims) which are not readily available on the internet. As a result, 

four of the six sentencing enhancements in § 2G2.2 – those relating to computer usage and 

the type and volume of images possessed by offenders, which together account for 13 

offense levels – now apply to most offenders and, thus fail to differentiate among offenders 

in terms of their culpability. These enhancements originally were promulgated in an earlier 

technological era, when such factors better served to distinguish among offenders. Indeed, 

most of the enhancements in § 2G2.2, in their current or antecedent versions, were 

promulgated when the typical offender obtained child pornography in printed form in the 

mail.

Id. at 86-87, (quoting U.S. Sentencing Comm’n, Federal Child Pornography Offenses, at 

i-ii, (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted.)

There are cases containing the numerous district court decisions around the country, 

cited by the R.V. opinion, which have expressed disapproval for the guidelines sentence 

for child pornography offenses. The Appendix also contains cases cited by R.V. where 

defendants convicted only of possession offenses have received sentences with minimal or 

no incarceration. Additionally, below are cases where the Eleventh Circuit affirmed 

downward variances from child pornography Guidelines after the sentencing court has 

weighted the §3553(a) factors for a particular case.

In United States v. McBride, 511 F.3d 1293 (11th Cir. 2007) the Court affirmed a 

significant variance of 84 months that was a departure from 151 to 188 months. The 

defendant in McBride was an admitted pedophile, who was convicted of distributing child 

pornography and found to be in possession of 981 images and 45 videos. The sentencing 

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court viewed the defendant’s personal history together with the defendant’s clean record. 

Id. 511 F.3d at 1295. 

In United States v. Gray, 452 F.3d 1323 (11th Cir. 2006) the court upheld 72 months 

from a sentence range that was 151 to 188. The district court took into account the 

defendant’s age, his prior minimal criminal record, and his medical condition.

In United States v. Halsema, 180 Fed.Appx. 103 (11th Cir. 2006), the Court upheld 

a sentence of 24 months for possession of child pornography that was half of the lower end 

of the guidelines range of 57 to 71 months. Relying on expert testimony, the district court 

found that a longer sentence would negatively affect Halsema’s rehabilitation and that a 24 

month sentence “is sufficient to provide just punishment . . . and serves as an adequate 

deterrent to others.” Id. at 105.

The factors of 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) warrant a sentence variance.

The Defendant requests that this Court impose a downward variance sentence from 

the sentencing guideline range of 292 - 365 months. With a few clicks of the mouse, file 

sharing programs allow for the Defendant to have access to child pornography without the 

least amount of contact with the producers and without discriminating the nature of the 

pornography or the volume. As the Sentencing Commission report noted, offenses 

involving most computer usage offenders account for 13 offense levels and fail to 

differentiate among offenders in terms of their culpability. (U.S. Sentencing Comm’n, 

Federal Child Pornography Offenses, at I-ii). Furthermore, the studies cited above confirm 

that persons who commit the instant offense pose an extremely low risk of recidivism for 

this type of offense and a very low risk of committing any other sexual offenses.

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The factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. §3553(a) warrant a variance from the guidelines 

range. The nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of 

the Defendant were discussed above in connection with the current guidelines scheme. 

Considering the need to reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for 

the law, and to provide just punishment for the offenses, the sentencing guidelines are 

severe punishment for the Defendant’s level of culpability and his lack of any history of 

sexual offenses. As discussed above, the need to protect the public would be very low 

given the low risk of danger to the public posed by defendants convicted of possession of 

child pornography. The Defendant’s background and the nature of his offense, coupled 

with the fact that at the minimum mandatory 180 months, he will be over 90 years old when 

is released from prison, indicate he is a low risk of danger to the public. The need for 

deterrence for persons obtaining child pornography online does not warrant the guidelines 

sentence, and deterrence can be accomplished with a much less severe punishment. The 

need to provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training or medical 

care would be better accomplished through the strict non-incarceration supervision, which 

courts have found to be more appropriate for persons such as the Defendant whose interest 

draws them to these images. 

The Disparate Nature of the Child Pornography Guideline

A. U.S.S.G. §2G2.2: The Child Pornography Guideline.

It is respectfully submitted that the guidelines for child pornography cases are too 

high and the Court should consider for a sentence below the advisory guidelines. Indeed, 

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in the 2012 U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Report to Congress regarding federal child 

pornography offenses, the Commission noted that “the current non-production guideline 

warrants revision in view of its outdated and disproportionate enhancements related to 

offenders’ collecting behaviour as well as its failure to account fully for some offenders’ 

involvement in child pornography communities and sexually dangerous behaviour. The 

current guideline produces overly severe sentencing ranges for some offenders, unduly 

lenient ranges for other offenders, and widespread inconsistent application.” See, The U.S. 

Sentencing Commission’s Report to Congress: Federal Child Pornography Offenses, 

(hereinafter “the report”), Ch. 12, p.331, (Dec. 2012), available at

https://www.ussc.gov/research/congressional-reports/2012-report-congress-federal- childpornography-offenses.

1. The Sentencing Commission admits that there are unwarranted 

and unfounded disparities in cases in which defendants are 

sentenced for non-production child pornography offenses.

Chapter 8 of the Report discusses in detail one of the major guideline problems, that 

is, the typical offense conduct now triggers multiple guideline enhancements and exposes 

most defendants to substantial penalty ranges. The result is that the guidelines fail to 

distinguish meaningfully among offenders in terms of culpability and dangerousness. 

(The Report, Chap. 8, p. 207.)

According to the Report, because the possession and distribution statutes trigger 

different base offense levels in the guidelines, they “provide substantially different ranges 

for two groups of defendants who engaged in substantially similar conduct found by 

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sentencing courts.” (The Report, Chap. 8, pp. 215-216.) Because the difference between 

the guidelines is not rooted in any data or empirical evidence, this unwarranted disparity 

should be corrected at sentencing.

2. Guidelines for non-production offenses are higher than the mean 

guideline minimum for three other sex offense types that involve 

actual or attempted sexual contact with a minor.

To illustrate the point that the non-production guidelines are disproportionately 

high, the Commission conducted a comparative proportionality analysis between the 

mean guidelines for §2G2.2 and other federal sex offenses that involve actual or attempted 

sexual contact with a minor. (The Report, Chap. 6, p. 136.) The Report found that the 

mean guideline for a §2G2.2 case is higher than the mean guideline minimum for the 

following three other sex offense types that involve minors:

(1) traveling to engage in sexual contact with a minor 12 years old or older 

(USSG § 2G1.3 (Promoting a Commercial Sex Act or Prohibited Sexual 

Conduct with a Minor; Transportation of Minors to Engage in a Commercial 

Sex Act or Prohibited Sexual Conduct; Travel to Engage in Commercial Sex 

Act or Prohibited Sexual Conduct with a Minor; Sex Trafficking of Children; 

Use of Interstate Facilities to Transport Information about a Minor)); (2) 

abusive sexual contact with a minor (e.g., sexual fondling) (§ 2A3.4 (Abusive 

Sexual Contact or Attempt to Commit Abusive Sexual Contact)); and (3) 

statutory rape of a minor under 16 years of age (§ 2A3.2 (Criminal Sexual 

Abuse of a Minor Under the Age of Sixteen Years (Statutory Rape) or 

Attempt to Commit Such Acts)).

(The Report, Chap. 6, pp. 135-136.) Mr. Good’s case does not involve the enticement of 

minors or an attempt to have physical contact with minors, a fact that should be considered 

in imposing a below-guidelines sentence in this case.

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3. Several enhancements under §2G2.2 and are no longer a 

meaningful way to distinguish or punish more egregious conduct.

Mr. Good received an enhancement for images depicting a prepubescent minor and 

an additional enhancement for use of a computer. (PSI Pgs 33, 34). These enhancements, 

as shown in the following figure taken from the Report, now apply to “virtually all nonproduction offenders,” thus not providing any meaningful distinction or warranting 

enhanced punishment.

(Id. at p. 139).

Mr. Good also received an enhancement for sadomasochistic images, pattern of 

activity, as well as the maximum enhancement for number of images. (PSI ¶¶ er9). 

According to the Report, there has been a steady increase in the application of 

enhancements related to sadomasochistic images: in 2005, the enhancement applied in 

approximately 60 percent of cases, and by 2010, it applied in nearly 75 percent of cases. 

(Report, Chap. 6, p. 141.) Additionally, in fiscal year 2010, 96.9 percent of child 

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pornography defendants received an enhancement pursuant to §2G2.2(b)(7) based on the 

number of images that they possessed, and 69.6 percent received the maximum 5-level 

enhancement based on possession of 600 or more images. (Id.) Again, this empirical data 

demonstrates that the guidelines are generating arbitrarily high ranges that do not 

differentiate among conduct and offenders. In sum, the application of these 

enhancements does not demonstrate that Mr. Good is more culpable, more dangerous, or 

more deserving of punishment than the average non-production defendant, despite the fact 

that, combined, these enhancements add a total of 13 offense levels to his guideline 

computation.

The Report discusses ways to more meaningfully differentiate offenders based on 

offense conduct and potential dangerousness. (The Report, Exec. Sum. pp. xvii- xviii.) 

The Commission first recommends removing outdated measures of culpability discussed 

above. It further recommends focusing not only on the content of a defendant's child 

pornography collection but also "the extent to which an offender has organized, 

maintained, and protected his collection over time, including through the use of 

sophisticated technologies," the degree of an offender's involvement in a "community" of 

other child pornography offenders, and whether an offender has a history of "sexually 

abusive, exploitative, or 

4. The Court in this district recognize that the guidelines in non-production 

cases do not meet the purposes of punishment and routinely vary downward 

in cases presenting similar or worse facts than those in Mr. Good’s case.

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In United States v. Carlo Demarco, Case No. 10-cr-20261-KMM, the defendant 

pled guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography. His PSR calculated his 

sentencing guidelines to be 151-188 months, and the defendant requested a downward 

variance. Over the Government’s objection, the court imposed a sentence of 60 months. 

The facts set forth in that defendant’s proffer established that the defendant was using a 

publicly available file sharing program; and a forensic examination of that computer 

revealed at least 600 images and at least 101 videos of prepubescent children engaging in 

sexually explicit conduct, including oral sex and penetration. Case No. 10-cr-20261-

KMM (D.E. 46). Moreover, that defendant had his software configured to allow him to 

actively monitor not just which files of his were being downloaded, but who was 

downloading his files. (Id.).

In a case involving more than simple peer-to-peer distribution, United States v. 

Diego Matrajt, Case No. 12-cr-20343-RNS, the defendant pled guilty to one count of 

distribution and two counts of possession of child pornography, despite all indications that 

he was producing child pornography. (D.E. 40.) His PSR calculated his guidelines to be 

210-262 months, the defendant requested a sentence of 60 months, and over the 

Government’s objection, the court imposed a sentence of 120 months as to each count to 

run concurrently. Id. That defendant not only had his computers password protected and 

encrypted, but he also had webcams secretly set up in his home, where he conducted photo 

shoots of children and captured videos of those children naked in his home. He possessed 

50 homemade videos of this nature, in addition to at least another 40 sexually explicit 

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videos of minors. Id. Matrajt, who had numerous real children in his home and videoed 

them for his own sexual gratification, in addition to possessing and sharing sexually 

explicit videos of minors, received a sentence of 120 months. 

In United States v. Shawn Beauvais, Case No. 12-cr-60067-RNS, the defendant, 

who pled to distribution, was found to have possessed over 4,000 pictures and over 1,700 

videos, many of which involved infants and toddlers subjected to sadomasochism. The 

PSI calculated his guideline range to be 151-188, the defendant requested a 60-month 

sentence, and the Government, recognizing the defendant’s medical needs, requested a 

sentence of 121 months. The Court imposed a sentence of 75 months. 

In the case of United States v. Riley, 655 F. Supp. 2d 1298 (S.D. Fla. 2009), Judge 

King rejected the recommended sentencing range and sentenced the defendant to the 

statutory minimum term of 60 months. In rejecting the advisory guideline range of 210-

262 months, the court noted that the guidelines are entitled to deference when the 

Sentencing Commission produces them in accordance with their institutional role and 

where the guidelines are the result of a study of empirical data; however, the court 

concluded that little deference is owed to the guideline for child pornography cases since 

these guidelines did not exemplify the Sentencing Commission’s exercise of its 

characteristic institutional role and empirical analysis:

[T]he guideline has been steadily increased despite evidence and 

recommendations by the Commission to the contrary. Congress has 

repeatedly amended it directly, ostensibly to target mass producers of child 

pornography and/or repeat abusers of children, a class of offenders that make 

up less than 5% of those affected by the changes...Between 1994 and 2007, 

Case 9:22-cr-80173-AMC Document 179 Entered on FLSD Docket 08/14/2023 Page 19 of 23
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the mean sentence in child pornography cases increased from 36 months to 

110 months...[T]his increase was not the result of the empirical approach 

often used by the Commission, designed to be an expert body on 

sentencing...These amendments [increasing sentence ranges] destroyed some 

of the careful distinctions the Commission had drawn between true peddlers 

of child pornography and more simple possessors or transporters.

Id. at 1301 (quoting United States v. Hanson, 561 F. Supp. 2d 1004, 1010-11 (E.D. Wis. 

2008)). Also, the court discussed at length that due to arbitrary upward increases in the 

base offense levels for child pornography and the near-automatic application of numerous 

specific offense enhancements (i.e., distribution, use of a computer, prepubescent victims 

and number of images), rarely, if ever, will a defendant score at the low end of the statutory 

range. Many other courts in this district have varied downward in distribution and receipt 

cases. See, e.g., United States v. John Jerrold Collier, Case No. 18-cr-20095-PCH (courtimposed sentence of 80 months in case involving over 20,000 photos and more than 500 

videos, where defendant pled to receipt but factual proffer established distribution); 

United States v. Mael Yves Crespin, Case No. 18-cr-20250-KMW (court imposed belowguideline sentence of 65 months, where defendant joined online chat group for purpose of 

exchanging child pornography); United States v. Taylor Lyon, Case No. 15-cr-20893-UU 

(court varied from advisory range of 97 to 121 months to the mandatory minimum of 60 

months); United States v. Matthew Clark, Case No. 11-cr-14064-DLG (in case involving 

peer-to-peer sharing of files, the Court varied from the advisory guideline range of 151-

188 months to impose a sentence of 66 months); United States v. Nat Lane, Case No. 10-

cr-14061-JEM (Court varied from 151 months to a sentence of 108 months); United States 

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v. Mehrdad Sarlak, Case No. 11-cr-20078-JLK (Court varied from 151-188 months to a 

sentence of 60 months); United States v. Walkenhorst, Case No. 18-cr-60093-WPD (Court 

sentenced Defendant to 5 years’ Probation in a child pornography case). Such local 

sentencing trends mirror a larger national sentencing trend in Child Pornography cases:

(Report, Ch. 6, p.135). 

Much of the recent research that was relied upon by the Sentencing 

Commission in the review of guidelines for child pornography crimes draw an 

important distinction between possession offenders and contact offenders. The 

reports generated by these studies suggest the possession offender is less likely for 

recidivism than the contact offender. In the report prepared for the Sentencing 

Commission in 2012, Child Pornography Offender Characteristics and Risk to 

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Reoffend, Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, Michael C. Seto, there is 

"...confirmation that online sexual offenders differ from conventional sexual 

offenders in meaningful ways." which suggests "...that online offenders may pose a 

lower risk to reoffend overall than contact offenders." The report concluded in a 

study of mostly online child pornography offenders for 3 1/2 years "...the recidivism 

rates were relatively low compared to the average recidivism rates found for contact 

sexual offenders." (E.g., Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2005). 

Based on Mr. Good’s history and characteristics, the punishment ranges 

established by Congress, the unreasonableness of the advisory guideline range and

the Sentencing Commission’s own recommendations, and the 18 U.S.C. § 3553

factors, it is respectfully submitted that the Court should sentence Mr. Good to no 

more than 180 months in prison.

CONCLUSION

Undoubtedly, the Court will punish Mr. Good for his conduct in the instant offense. 

However, no sentence will take away the embarrassment and disappointment he has caused 

his family and those closest to him. No sentence can replace the forever stigma of being a 

registered sex offender for the rest of his life. Understanding all of this, Mr. Good is 

optimistic for his future. He is confident that with perseverance, his remorse for his 

conduct, dedication to himself and his family, and proper treatment he will overcome these 

obstacles and if able, spend the last years of his life with his family. For all these reasons, 

Mr. Good moves this Honorable Court for a sentence this is “sufficient but greater than 

necessary” to achieve the purposes set forth in sentencing. 

Case 9:22-cr-80173-AMC Document 179 Entered on FLSD Docket 08/14/2023 Page 22 of 23
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Respectfully submitted,

/s/ James S. Benjamin 

JAMES S. BENJAMIN, Esquire

Benjamin, Aaronson, Edinger & Patanzo P.A.

1700 East Las Olas Blvd., Suite 202

Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

(954) 779-1700

Jamie@BenjaminAaronson.com

Fla. Bar No.: 293245

Attorney for Gregory Good

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing was filed with the CM/ECF system and 

that a copy was furnished, through the system, to all parties of record, this 14th day of 

August, 2023.

/s/ James S. Benjamin 

JAMES S. BENJAMIN

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