Lawton man gets 30 years for federal child porn conviction

OKLAHOMA CITY — A Lawton man received the maximum federal sentence after pleading guilty to the production of child pornography.

Charles Raymond French Jr., 38, was sentenced to serve 360 months (30 years) in federal prison following his Dec. 1, 2023, guilty plea in U.S. Western District Court where he admitted to producing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Robert Troester.

French received a two-count indictment by a federal grand jury on Oct. 3, 2023, where he was charged with production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the previously filed criminal complaint, on Sept. 6, 2023, an FBI Online Covert Employee (OCE) connected with French through a social media messaging app. During the conversation, French expressed an interest in material that depicts the sexual abuse of children, and shared several photographs and videos of child pornography with the OCE. This included two photographs French claimed to have taken himself which involved 3-year-old and 10-year-old victims. Authorities linked the account to French, and he was arrested at his Lawton home the next day.

U.S District Judge Jodi W. Dishman sentenced French to serve the statutory maximum, followed by five years of supervised release.

In announcing the sentence, the Court noted the “depravity” of the crime, specifically that the defendant preyed on the most vulnerable victims in our society: children, Troester stated. The Court further emphasized that the sentence needed to reflect the extreme nature and seriousness of the defendant’s conduct — given the threat to the safety of the community posed by the defendant — and to send a message to the public that these crimes will be punished severely.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Lawton Division of the FBI Oklahoma City Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Joynes prosecuted the case.

French’s case is part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, according to Troester. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the DOJ Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC 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 PSC, visit www.justice.gov/psc.