St Johns man will serve 105-year sentence

Historic City News reporters have learned that United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced a 31-year-old St Johns County man to serve 105 years in federal prison for engaging in an extortion scheme to produce child pornography. On August 13, 2014, Lucas Michael Chansler pled guilty to nine counts of producing child pornography.

Using information received from the parents of one victim and working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), agents were able to identify Chansler and locate his residence. A federal search warrant was executed at the residence on January 8, 2010.

“Child predators, such as Chansler, are using increasingly devious techniques to lure and exploit innocent children,” said U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III. “Our Office will continue to work with law enforcement to investigate and prosecute these cases.”

According to court documents, from 2007 and continuing until January 2010, Chansler transmitted threatening communications to hundreds of girls over the Internet. He transmitted these threats with the intent to extort photographs and webcam videos showing the victims exposing themselves and engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Chansler pretended to be a friend, acquaintance, or admirer of the victims on various social networking websites.

After gaining some measure of trust from a particular child, Chansler would invite her to engage in a live video chat and later would ask her to expose herself. Unbeknownst to the child, he was recording the video session. Chansler often enticed his victims to expose themselves by showing a streaming video of a minor male exposing himself or engaging in masturbation. If a victim did expose herself, he recorded it and then later sent it to her over the Internet. Chansler would then demand additional and more graphic images or webcam videos. He would inform the child that if she did not comply, he would post the images and videos online, or send them to her family and friends.

During an interview, Chansler stated that that he used social networking sites to meet girls who ranged in age from 13 to 18. He stated that he targeted underage girls because adult women were “too smart” to fall for his scheme.

Forensic analyses of Chansler’s computer media revealed hundreds of folders labeled with the name of each child victim. These folders contained personal information specific to the victims, as well as related chat logs and videos or digital photos. Many of the chat logs contained the threats Chansler had made to the children. In several of the videos, the victims are seen crying and pleading with Chansler. In total, he had approximately 80,000 images and videos in his possession.

According to court testimony, Chansler targeted 350 child victims in 26 different states throughout the U.S., three Canadian provinces, and the United Kingdom, 106 of which have been positively identified. According to NCMEC, in terms of number of victims, this case is the largest “sextortion” case prosecuted to date in the United States.