Source: United States Department of Justice News
Ocala, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that a federal jury has found Eddie Joe Oglesby, Jr. (52, Fort McCoy) guilty of two counts of production of child sex abuse material and one count of receipt of child sex abuse material. Oglesby faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 15 years, up to 30 years in federal prison on each of the two production counts. He faces a minimum mandatory of 5 years, up to 20 years, on the receipt count. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 16, 2023, before Senior United States District Judge John Antoon II. A superseding indictment was returned against Oglesby on September 13, 2022.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Oglesby created an elaborate false identity that he used to impersonate a federal agent. He used this false identity to coerce underaged female victims to produce and send him sexually explicit images over the internet. Posing as the false agent, Oglesby threatened to have the victims arrested, imprisoned, institutionalized, or killed if they did not comply with his demands.
When the FBI searched Oglesby’s home on September 27, 2021, they found him with an underaged female runaway. A search of Oglesby’s cellphone showed him logged into multiple social media applications under both his real and false identity. Agents ultimately found 473 pages of electronic communications between Oglesby and one of his victims on that cellphone.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Weatherford (Texas) Police Department, and the Cobb County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys William S. Hamilton and Hannah J. Nowalk.
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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.justice.gov/psc.