Jacksonville, Florida – Paul Edward Lee, Jr. (38, Jacksonville) has been arrested and charged by a federal criminal complaint with soliciting child pornography using the internet. In 2011, Lee was convicted of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child in Duval County Circuit Court and is required to register as a sexual predator. Because of this prior conviction, Lee faces an enhanced minimum mandatory penalty of 25 years, and up to 50 years, in federal prison and a potential life term of supervision. He is currently in federal custody pending his detention hearing on May 7, 2018. 

According to the complaint, a law enforcement officer in Illinois discovered that a child was having online contact with a 38-year-old male in Florida through a smart phone application designed for children. The messages exchanged between the child and the adult, later identified as Lee, were sexual in nature.

On April 25, 2018, an FBI agent in Jacksonville, posing as the child, continued to communicate with Lee through text messaging. During these communications, Lee told the “child,” in graphic terms, how he wanted to have sex with “her,’’ and sent “her” several images and videos of his genitalia. On April 27, 2018, Lee repeatedly solicited the “child” to produce and send him graphic images and a video of “her” genitalia. On May 2, 2018, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Lee’s home and placed him under arrest.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

It is another case 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.justice.gov/psc.