Couple Sentenced In Watervliet Child Porn ‘House of Horrors’ Case
Sentencing was Thursday for a couple accused of running an elaborate child pornography production scheme in their Berrien County home.
The US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan says 53-year-old Joseph Williams of Watervliet and 48-year-old Sherri Smith of Osceola Indiana had been dating, and allegedly abused six children in their care by producing child porn with them. The children ranged in age from six months to fourteen years old. The couple was caught after Williams shared images with an undercover police officer in Ohio.
They both pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography, with Williams facing an additional count of distribution.
At sentencing in Grand Rapids federal court, the judge called the crime scene a “child pornography house of horrors”, and said that this case was “if not the worst, then one of the two or three worst cases” he had ever seen.
Sherri Smith was sentenced to 60 years in prison, while Joseph Williams to 80 years.