United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota Andrew M. Luger and Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division today announced the trial conviction of FRANK RUSSELL MCCOY, 72, who was indicted on Jan. 22, 2015, in the District of Minnesota. A jury returned a guilty verdict after a two-day trial before U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz. The defendant is expected to be sentenced on April 5, 2016.
According to documents filed in court, MCCOY wrote and distributed short stories describing extreme sexual abuse and other acts of violence perpetrated against very young children. He was convicted in 2013 in the Middle District of Georgia of one count of transportation of obscene matters after sending one such story via the internet to an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent.
As proven at trial, on Dec. 17, 2013, while MCCOY was on bond pending an appeal of his conviction from Georgia, a U.S. Probation officer observed large numbers of computers and related equipment in MCCOY’s home in Minnesota. A search of the computer equipment revealed dozens of videos of child exploitation. Though MCCOY had installed forensic wiping software, intended to destroy any evidence of child exploitation images on his computers, the majority of those files had been written onto a portable video player device just before the seizure of the devices.
Approximately one month prior to trial, MCCOY was interrupted in the process of typing a sexually explicit story describing the sexual abuse of a young child by her grandfather while he was on supervised and pretrial release and living in a halfway house in the Twin Cities.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood 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 Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine T. Buzicky and Trial Attorney Jeffrey H. Zeeman of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice.
Defendant Information:
FRANK RUSSELL MCCOY, 72
Ostego, Minn.
Convicted:
* Possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor, one count
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
