Oklahoma Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography and Extortion, Faces 15 Years in Prison

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Oklahoma man pleaded guilty in federal court today to extorting a 14-year-old Missouri girl into sending him pornographic photos of herself.

Jeran Randall Secratt, 28, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to producing child pornography and to extortion.

By pleading guilty today, Secratt admitted that he met a 13-year-old Missouri girl (identified as “Jane Doe” in court documents) in an online virtual videogame, and they began chatting online. Some of their chats contained sexually explicit language and references to proposed sexual acts between the two of them.

Over time, Secratt suggested that Jane Doe obtain a webcam so that she could send explicit images of herself to him. Jane Doe obtained a webcam for Christmas and, in multiple chats, Secratt enticed Jane Doe to send him pornographic pictures of herself. Jane Doe refused to do so until Secratt threatened to send copies of their prior sexual chats to all the persons on her e-mail contact list. This list contained contact information of friends and family, including Jane Doe’s grandmother. In response to this threat to her reputation, Jane Doe took explicit photos of herself and sent them to Secratt. Some of the images were subsequently found on Secratt’s computer.

The court accepted Secratt’s guilty plea today and took the plea agreement under advisement until the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office. If the court accepts the plea agreement, Secratt will be sentenced to 15 years in federal prison without parole, followed by a period of supervised release of no less than five years.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force (Kansas City Division) and the FBI (Oklahoma City Division).

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”