Shreveport resident sentenced to 15 years in prison for producing child pornography

SHREVEPORT, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that a Shreveport resident was sentenced to 15 years in prison for producing child pornography.

Jason Carl Fruge, 45, of Shreveport, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth E. Foote on one count of production of child pornography. The defendant was also sentenced to five years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender. According to evidence presented at the October 1, 2015 guilty plea, during the course of investigating Fruge for other offenses, agents found a video on Fruge’s computer of a minor male child engaged in a sexually explicit sex act.  Fruge pretended to be an attractive female in order to convince the minor to engage in the sexual act.  Fruge directed the minor child to commit the sexually explicit act and recorded the minor using an online video chat service similar to Skype on June 9, 2014.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood combines 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.

Those concerned may leave tips with the FBI at tips.fbi.gov. Tips may be submitted anonymously.  The Shreveport FBI office number is (318) 861-1890.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) also encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) DHS-2ICE.  Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online by visiting their website at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp or through the Operation Predator smartphone application (http://www.ice.gov/predator/smartphone-app). Tips also may be submitted anonymously.

The FBI and ICE Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Gillespie Jr. prosecuted the case.