ASHLAND, KY – A Lawrence County man, Dale Allen Fraley, 49, was sentenced on Tuesday, to 57 years in prison, by U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning, after previously being convicted of five counts of production, four counts of receipt, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of a matter containing visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
According to the evidence at trial, Fraley used various online “personas” to induce, persuade, or coerce minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct, for the purpose of producing visual depictions of that conduct. Fraley, using the online “personas,” would threaten minor females to engage in various sexual acts and record that activity, or send the images to him “live,” via Skype or other applications.
He also persuaded the minors to come to his home, sometimes at the behest of the “personas,” to get “sexual experience” with Dale Fraley as the teacher. Fraley would sometimes record the sexual activity between himself and the minors at his home, or record the minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Fraley was convicted in May 2021.
Under federal law, Fraley must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life.
Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Chief Brian Mullins, Eastern Kentucky University Police, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI, with assistance from the Eastern Kentucky University Police Department. The United States was represented in the case by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Marye and Mary Melton.
This case was prosecuted 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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