Oscar J. Calhoun
A Belfry man was sentenced to 375 months in federal prison on Dec. 20, by U.S. District Judge Robert Wier, after pleading guilty to three counts of distribution of child pornography.
According to court records, Oscar Joshua Calhoun, 36, admitted to engaging with others to exchange child pornography, through online platforms. Calhoun’s distribution of child pornography involved numerous images of child pornography, and images involving children under the age of twelve.
Calhoun pled guilty to the charges, as set forth in the indictment, in May 2021.
According to an affidavit in the federal case against Calhoun, which was filed Jan. 24, 2020, Calhoun came to the attention of authorities through a social media application Calhoun was using to communicate with an individual Calhoun didn’t know was actually a New York Online Covert Employee (OCE) on a child exploitation squad.
Through another individual the OCE was investigating, the affidavit said, the OCE was introduced to Calhoun, who joined a message group with the individual and OCE.
During the course of that messaging group, the affidavit said, in September, Calhoun would post child pornography and discuss the sexual exploitation. The general nature of the images posted by Calhoun, the affidavit said, were fully-nude girls between the ages of approximately four and 10.
The affidavit said that, during the course of the messaging, Calhoun and the other individual posted approximately 52 child pornography images and 22 child pornography videos. Calhoun told the OCE he had produced some of them online and others were “inferred” to have been recorded in-person.
Under federal law, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Carlton S. Shier IV, Calhoun must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life.
Shier and Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge, FBI, Louisville Filed Office, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Rabold.
The statement said the case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals 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.
