Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Jody Osmer, 38, of Lafayette, Louisiana, was sentenced today by United States District Judge David C. Joseph. Osmer received a sentence of 235 months (19 years, 7 months) in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for production of child pornography.

This investigation began when law enforcement officers with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (“NCMEC”) received a cyber tip regarding distribution of child pornography associated with Osmer. On April 13, 2021, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at his residence in Lafayette and found him to be in possession of child pornography involving prepubescent minors. Osmer later admitted to agents that he had used social media to communicate with minor females in an effort to meet them in person and engage in sexual relations.

Through their investigation, agents learned that between October 2014 and January 2017, two minor females had communicated with Osmer via cell phone applications and had sent sexually explicit images of themselves via cell phone with Osmer at his request. In addition, Osmer admitted that he met one of the minor victims and engaged in sex with her. Osmer pleaded guilty to coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct and agreed that he did so with the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Bordelon.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood combines federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.