NEW ORLEANS - U.S. Attorney Peter G. Strasser announced that ROY DAVID MELANCON, age 40, a resident of Independence, Louisiana, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Carl J. Barbier to 108 months after previously pleading guilty to a one-count Indictment charging him with receipt of images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children. Judge Barbier also sentenced MELANCON to a period of 5 years of supervised release after he is released from prison and ordered him to pay $10,000 in restitution to those victims who sought restitution. MELANCON will also have to register as a sex offender.
According to court documents, law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at MELANCON’S residence on Feb. 20, 2018. Probable cause for the search warrant came from information developed in the March 2016 arrest of an individual in Canada who had traded images and videos containing depictions of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct via a cellular phone application with an individual utilizing username “makemehappy74," who law enforcement authorities determined to be MELANCON. During the execution of the search warrant, special agents with the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation seized electronic items including one cellular telephone and one Amazon Kindle Fire tablet that contained images and videos depicting the sexual victimization of children. A forensic examination of the devices revealed that MELANCON used them to search for, download, and save images and videos of child pornography. Some of the child victims depicted in the materials possessed by MELANCON were less than three (3) months old. Agents determined that MELANCON also sought and traded images and videos depicting the sexual victimization of children via a cell phone application. The forensic examination located not fewer than 1,000 images and 200 videos on MELANCON’S digital devices depicting children forced to engage in sexually explicit conduct.
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 United States Attorney’s= Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.projectsafechildhood.gov.
U.S. Attorney Strasser praised the work of the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg was in charge of the prosecution.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
