Arrest part of an international undercover investigation by Toronto, Ontario police
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - A substitute teacher, formerly employed by the Bowling Green (Kentucky) School system, was sentenced to ten years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release this week in United States District Court, by United States District Judge Greg N. Stivers, for possession and distribution of child pornography, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.
Leon Lussier, of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was arrested by criminal complaint on Sept. 1, 2015, and charged by grand jury indictment on Sept. 16, 2016. He pleaded guilty to the charges in May of 2016.
In court today, Lussier admitted that on three occasions, from June 23, 2015, to July 21, 2015, he participated in video conferencing rooms (chat rooms) where he was a participant in streaming child pornography through his webcam which was shared with other users in the room.
According to the initial charges, the international investigation that led to Lussier’s arrest started in January 2015, when the Toronto, Ontario, Canada Police Service, Child Exploitation Section, received information regarding the investigation of a group of individuals involved in the sexual abuse of children, including the distribution of child pornography. On June 23, 2015, a Toronto Police Service Detective Constable logged into an undercover software account and observed a person with the username “I luv boys" was streaming child pornography videos by sharing his computer screen. The user streamed four videos containing child pornography. Further investigation led law enforcement to Lussier as the person with username “I luv boys."
A search warrant of Lussier’s Bowling Green home resulted in the seizure of numerous computer media. A preview of an HP Pavilion by a Computer Forensics Agent revealed several videos containing child pornography. Several of the videos had been previously viewed in a chat room by an undercover officer. The videos were being live-streamed on a computer with an IP address assigned to Lussier.
In addition to the sentence, Lussier was ordered to pay $15,000 to victims and $50,000 in fines.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jo E. Lawless. This case is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Canadian authorities, Bowling Green Police Department and U.S. Marshals Service.
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."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
