An Indiana man who asked women on Facebook for sexually explicit photos of children in exchange for money, convincing three to agree to the offer, was recently sentenced to 50 years in prison and 15 years of supervised release.
Lorenzo Johnson, 33, of Hammond, was found guilty on Aug. 16 of three counts of conspiring to produce child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a U.S. Department of Justice press release said. He was sentenced on Dec. 17.
“As the jury unanimously found, Lorenzo Johnson repeatedly persuaded vulnerable women to sexually exploit infants and young children,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the release. “Today’s sentence sends a strong message that offenders who target vulnerable members of our society, and especially children, will be brought to justice,” Polite said.
Johnson, a registered sex offender who was previously convicted of aggravated sexual abuse involving a minor in 2009, created dummy accounts on Facebook seeking women who appeared to have financial difficulties, the release said. He then reached out to the women, offering money “to take sexually explicit photos of infants and prepubescent children whom they knew.”
Johnson also told FBI agents that he occasionally used blackmail, “discussing the sexual abuse of children with his co-conspirators and threatening to ‘expose’ them if they did not agree,” the release said.
Three women agreed to his offer and sent him photos of sexual abuse, the release said. The women were all charged with child pornography offenses, with two pleading guilty and one having the case dismissed after dying during the course of prosecution.
“This sentence demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to identifying sexual predators and investigating these type of cases with a sense of urgency to ensure those who victimize our most vulnerable members of society pay the price with time in prison,” Acting Special Agent in Charge Gregory Nelsen of the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office said in the release. “As a result of the tireless work of the FBI and our law enforcement partners, Johnson no longer poses a threat to the community.”
