Former JSO deputy admits sex trafficking of a 4-year-old girl

A 60-year-old former Duval County deputy sheriff has pled guilty to attempted commercial sex trafficking of a child and faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 15-years to life in federal prison after he solicited an adult woman in Texas to sexually abuse her 4-year-old daughter, take photographs of the abuse, and then sell the photographs to him.

Between February 25 and September 28, 2016, Michael Eugene Williams, who lived in a trailer on Lot 58 in Normandy Estates in Jacksonville, was found with more than 450 images and videos of child pornography on his cellphone as well as approximately 337 messages between him and the woman, mostly about her 4-year-old daughter. Williams repeatedly requested pornographic pictures and videos of the child and offered to pay for them.

Williams used income from his Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office retirement pension to send at least 19 Western Union wire transfers to the mother as payment. He urged the mother to film herself engaged in sexual acts with her child and to have the child perform sexual acts on others. His cellphone contained sexually explicit videos of the 4-year-old girl in Texas and messages detailing his desire to perform sexual acts on the child.

Immediately after discovering the images and videos of the 4-year-old’s sexual abuse, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and officers from JSO contacted federal and local law enforcement in Texas and the child was removed from the abusive environment.

The Texas woman pled guilty to two counts of production of child pornography in federal court in the Northern District of Texas. She faces up to 60 years in federal prison.