Jacksonville Man Pleads Guilty To Producing Child Pornography

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces that Charles Franklin Hudson, Jr. (38, Jacksonville) yesterday pleaded guilty to two counts of using a minor to produce videos depicting child pornography. Hudson faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, up to 30 years in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release on each count. Hudson was arrested in Jacksonville on January 8, 2014, and has been in custody since that time. 

According to court documents, on January 6, 2014, an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) was dispatched to a residence in Jacksonville in response to a call regarding allegations of sexual battery on a minor child. Subsequently, JSO Sex Crimes detectives interviewed the minor child, who indicated that she has been sexually abused by Hudson.

On January 8, 2014, JSO detectives obtained a search warrant for Hudson’s residence in Jacksonville. Hudson was arrested later that day. During the execution of the search warrant at his residence, officers discovered, among other things, numerous items of digital media including multiple computers, cameras, SD cards, CDs and DVDs. Located in the attic of the residence was a backpack containing cameras, sex devices and restraints, along with several pill bottles bearing Hudson’s name.  One of the pill bottles contained five SD media cards. Subsequent forensic analysis of the media cards revealed that they contained approximately 90 video and image files that depicted sexually explicit conduct involving Hudson. At least two of the videos, which had been produced by Hudson, depicted Hudson and a minor child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

This case was investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. 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.