Erika Susan Perdue, 43, obviously had way too much time on her hands. Her husband is a prominent intellectual property attorney in North Texas, so she was left to her own devices in a $1.4 million 4,000-square-foot palatial home in University Park, Texas, a very wealthy suburb of Dallas.
Prosecutors said Perdue was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty last year to one count of transporting and shipping child pornography.
Perdue, who was married twice before meeting her attorney husband, was given a 14-year prison term, an eight-year term of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $5,000 in restitution to one of the victims identified as “Vicky.” Upon her release, Perdue will have to register as a sex offender.
During her sentencing Monday, the haggard-looking Perdue sobbed and told the presiding judge that she was “very remorseful.”
“I lost two granddaughters to this,” she said in court, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Prosecutors say Perdue, who has two grandchildren, admitted to trading child pornography and getting high on meth while her husband was at work.
Perdue was indicted in May 2012. She’s been in custody since June of that year after violating conditions of her release. Records show that the the woman, who was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder after her arrest, was ejected from a treatment program for her “threatening behavior.”
Perdue is alleged to have amassed so large a collection of graphic videos and photos depicting children she had trouble keeping track of them, but she reportedly told police she traded in the illegal images every day since 1999.
Perdue was arrested in April 2012 after unwittingly trading child porn with an undercover detective. According to court documents, police officers armed with search warrants raided her mansion and seized her computers, where they found a large cache of X-rated videos and still photos.
Agents said the images were extremely graphic and showed children — some of them toddlers — having intercourse with adults.
The socialite used the name “Classyb—-” and unknowingly shared images with the undercover agents.
