Delano Unified School Technology Employee Pleads Guilty to Sexual Exploitation of Minor

FRESNO, CA—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Lonny Ray Haycock, 31, of Bakersfield, pleaded guilty today to the sexual exploitation of a minor for producing images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to his plea agreement, on August 21, 2010, Haycock knowingly used a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. Haycock, a former information technology specialist with the Delano Joint Unified School District, used the Internet to transmit the images of child pornography. The minor used in the production of the sexually explicit images was under the age of 12 years.

Haycock is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill on April 9, 2012. Haycock faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a lifetime term of supervised release.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Jeremy R. Jehangiri and Grant B. Rabenn are prosecuting the case.

The prosecution is 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 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 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, or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak to the PSC Coordinator.