Tulsa Physician Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Porn

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Tulsa, Okla., physician pleaded guilty in federal court today to using a minor to produce child pornography.

Shelby J. Coleman, 38, of Tulsa, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to the sexual exploitation of a child. Coleman, a medical doctor and partner of Tulsa Women’s Health Center, has been in federal custody since his arrest in September 2013.

By pleading guilty today, Coleman admitted that he communicated with a 16-year-old minor in Laclede County, Mo., identified as John Doe, via cell phone texts. At Coleman’s request, John Doe sent him multiple sexually explicit images of himself.

When John Doe’s father discovered the text messages, he contacted the Missouri State Highway Patrol. A state trooper assumed the identity of John Doe for the purpose of the investigation.

On Sept. 28, 2013, Coleman was apprehended by investigators after he traveled to Springfield, Mo., in order to meet John Doe for a sexual liaison.

Under federal statutes, Coleman is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 30 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the FBI, the Joplin, Mo., Police Department, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.