LEXINGTON, KY- A Cynthiana, Kentucky, man was convicted on Tuesday, by a federal jury sitting in Lexington for using a minor to produce sexually-explicit images and videos.
After one hour of deliberation, following a day and half trial, the jury convicted 37-year-old William Michael Fields Jr., of two counts of employing, using, persuading, enticing, or coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of making a visual depiction of that conduct.
According to testimony at trial, Fields used a 17-year-old minor to produce sexually explicit images in the back of an ambulance in Bourbon County, on March 17, 2019. The evidence also revealed that the Defendant used the same minor to produce five videos and two images of sexually explicit conduct at the Emergency Medical Training Facility in Bourbon County, on March 23, 2019.
Fields, a former Harrison County Constable and Paris Fire Department firefighter, was indicted in October 2019.
Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jerry C Templet Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Daniel J. Cameron, Kentucky Attorney General, and Chief E. Douglas Robinson, Cynthiana Police Department; and jointly announced the conviction.
The investigation was conducted by ICE and the Cynthiana Police Department with assistance from the Kentucky OAG Cyber Crimes Branch. The United States was represented in the case by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erin Roth and Mary Melton.
Fields will appear for sentencing on September 4. He faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison. However, the Court must consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the applicable federal sentencing statutes before imposing a sentence.
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 U.S. Attorneys' 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.
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