Tulsa Physician Sentenced to 15 Years for Producing Child Porn

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

Shelby J. Coleman, 38, of Tulsa, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 15 years and eight months in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Coleman to serve 10 years on supervised release following incarceration.

On Jan. 12, 2016, Coleman pleaded guilty 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.

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.

This case was 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.

Project Safe Childhood

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."