Jacksonville Man Indicted By Federal Grand Jury For Producing Child Pornography

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announced today that a federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Charles Franklin Hudson, Jr. (38, Jacksonville) with four counts of using a minor to produce videos depicting child pornography.  He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, up to 30 years in federal prison, and a potential life term of supervision. Hudson was arrested on January 8, 2014, and has been in custody on related state charges since that time. His arraignment and detention hearing is scheduled for April 16, 2014 at 10:30 a.m., before United States Magistrate Judge Monte C. Richardson in Jacksonville.   

The indictment alleges that on or about May 17, 2011 through on or about June 28, 2012, Hudson, on at least four separate occasions, did knowingly employ, use, persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual materials of that conduct.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).  It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

It is another case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.