Former Mansfield Special Needs Instructor Sentenced to 60 Years in Federal Prison for Producing Child Pornography

FORT WORTH, Texas — Kelly Dan Williams, Jr., a former special needs instructor at Mansfield Independent School District’s (ISD) Mary Orr Intermediate School, who admitted sexually exploiting children, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to serve a total of 720 months (60 years) in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Williams, Jr., 62, has been in custody since his arrest in June 2015 on a related federal criminal complaint.  He was indicted by a federal grand jury in Fort Worth in July 2015 on two counts of the sexual exploitation of children, and he pleaded guilty to that indictment in January 2016. Today, Judge Means sentenced him to 360 months on each of those to counts, to run consecutively.

According to documents filed in the case, on June 1, 2015, an individual at Mary Orr Intermediate School observed Williams, Jr. performing a sex act on an 11-year-old male student in a school bathroom stall.  This individual reported this to the school’s administration, and Williams, Jr. was directed to report to the Human Resources office.

Mansfield Police obtained a search warrant for Williams’ Jr., residence, where they seized electronic storage devices, to include an SD card.  A forensic examination revealed that a video located on the SD card depicted Williams, Jr. performing a sex act on a minor male, who appears to be younger than age 12, in what appears to be a school bathroom stall.  Further forensic analysis indicates that the video was created on or about February 3, 2010.

Williams admitted that on approximately January 13, 2010, he used a minor boy to engage in sexually explicit conduct that he video-recorded.  He further admitted that on approximately February 3, 2010, he used a minor boy to engage in sexually explicit conduct with him and video- recorded that conduct. 

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the Project Safe Childhood (PSC) initiative.  PSC is a department initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  Since FY 2011, the Department of Justice has filed 20,260 PSC cases against 19,111 defendants.  These cases include prosecutions of child sex trafficking; sexual abuse of a minor or ward; child pornography offenses; obscene visual representation of the sexual abuse of children; selling or buying of children; and many more statutes.  To learn more about PSC’s work, please visit: https://www.justice.gov/psc.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Mansfield ISD Police Department, the Mansfield Police Department and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office investigated the case. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Saleem was in charge of the prosecution.

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