New Orleans Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced today that JON C. BALLAY, age 58, of New Orleans, Louisiana, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge Jay Zainey to one count of producing images depicting the sexual exploitation of a fourteen-year-old female.

According to court documents, on May 23, 2017, law enforcement authorities executed a search warrant at the Olde Town Inn, located at 2311 North Rampart Street, in New Orleans, Louisiana.  During the execution of the search warrant, authorities found and recovered the victim with BALLAY and seized several electronic devices belonging to BALLAY, including a Samsung Galaxy Express Prime cellular telephone affiliated with a local phone number. BALLAY used cellular phones to take approximately twenty (20) sexually explicit images of the victim between May 15, 2017 and May 22, 2017, at multiple hotels in the greater New Orleans area.

Sentencing before Judge Zainey has been scheduled for August 28, 2018.  BALLAY faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of fifteen (15) years and a maximum term of thirty (30) years, followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.  He can also be required to register as a sex offender.

This case was brought 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 United States Attorney’s= 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.