Jeffrey Duane Cox, a 44-year-old resident of Albion in Calhoun County, MI, has been sentenced to 240 years in a federal prison for the sexual assault of seven children. The substantial number of years, coupled with Cox’s age, means that it’s very likely that he will serve out the remainder of his life behind bars.

Cox had been found guilty on seven counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Child and two counts of Possession of Child Pornography. He appeared for sentencing before Chief Judge Robert Jonker in the U.S. District Court, Western Michigan District, which is located in Grand Rapids, MI.

Under Federal law Sexual Exploitation of a Child is defined as “Any person who employs, uses, persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any minor to engage in, or who has a minor assist any other person to engage in…any sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct or for the purpose of transmitting a live visual depiction of such conduct, shall be punished.”

In other words, anyone who is found to be using a child in any way in the production of child pornography, in the form of either photographs, video or live transmission, will be charged with a crime. While Michigan law is very harsh when it comes to child pornography or kiddie porn, federal law is harsher. That is why some local prosecutors turn cases over to the feds in the hopes of getting a much more severe penalty for the accused.

Court records reveal that Cox exploited seven children between 2012 and 2014. He is alleged to have lured the children into his home, and then slowly convinced them that he was trustworthy. This is called “grooming the child”. After gaining their trust, however, prosecutors say that he sexually exploited and abused them.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, while inside his home Cox photographed and also videotaped the children while they were engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In some cases he took the photographs himself while in others he set up a video camera to record his abuse of the children. He is also said to have had a partner who assisted him by taking the pictures and videos on his behalf.

Brandon Alexander Russell, Cox’s co-defendant, accepted a plea agreement in October of 2015. He was later sentenced to 15 years in prison for a single count of Sexual Exploitation of a Child. Cox is said to have stored the child pornography he created on various devices in his home.

Child Pornography and the sexual exploitation of children are both taken very seriously, both by Michigan and federal prosecutors. If you or a loved one are accused of producing, distributing or possessing child pornography, you have a very long battle ahead of you. It It is one that you are likely to lose if you don’t ensure that your criminal defense attorney is highly skilled and has decades of experience handling “kiddie porn” cases in Michigan. We have extensive experience dealing with these cases.