Gainesville Man Sentenced to 70 Years for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Gainesville, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for coercing a minor victim to engage in illicit sexual activity.

Tracy Todd Presson, 55, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to 70 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Presson to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration.

On July 6, 2020, Presson pleaded guilty to one count of the sexual exploitation of a minor and to one count of the coercion of a minor. Presson admitted that he produced child pornography, using a child victim, identified in court documents as Jane Doe 1, by recording him and Jane Doe 1 engaging in sexually explicit activity on multiple occasions.  Presson also admitted that he used FaceTime to coerce and entice Jane Doe 1 to engage in sexually explicit activity.  

When law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Presson’s residence on Oct. 3, 2018, they found a SanDisk 32GB SD card that contained child pornography, including images and videos of Jane Doe 1 engaged in sexually explicit activity.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ami Harshad Miller and Byron Black. It was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Ozark County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

Project Safe Childhood
This 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. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."