March 7, 2024 – A FBI employee has been charged after authorities say he sent sexually explicit photos to minors.
On March 4, 2024, a jury in the Middle District of Tennessee found Justin Carroll guilty of sexual exploitation of a minor, coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity, receipt of child pornography, and transfer of obscene material to an individual under the age of sixteen, announced United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis.
According to evidence presented at trial, between June 2020 and April 27, 2021, Carroll, who was employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an electronics technician, engaged in sexually explicit chats and exchanged sexually explicit images with three fourteen-year-old females over various social media platforms after connecting with the minors on chatting websites. Carroll’s conduct was discovered after one of the victims mailed a Valentine’s Day package to the FBI office. Sexually explicit images of the minor females were found in Carroll’s social media accounts and on his cell phone. Images of Carroll were found in one of the minor’s social media accounts and on another minor’s cell phone. Carroll continued communicating with the fourteen-year-old victim who mailed the package, even after receiving an e-mail from her mother inquiring why her daughter mailed him a package and advising him of her daughter’s age.
“It is no longer adequate to keep our children physically separated from strangers,” said United States Attorney Henry C. Leventis. “We must be vigilant in monitoring who they communicate with online to ensure their safety and to prevent the type of egregious conduct committed by the defendant in this case. I commend the trial team and our law enforcement partners for their excellent work investigating this case and presenting it to the jury.”
“The FBI will continue to find, arrest, and prosecute those who seek to exploit our most vulnerable population, no matter who they are or what their profession is,” said Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta of the FBI Memphis Field Office.
“This individual abused his position of trust as an FBI technician to prey on the vulnerability of children,” said HSI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud. “Thanks to the outstanding teamwork between the dedicated men and women at HSI Nashville and our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, we were able to remove this dangerous predator from the community before he could victimize any more innocent children.”
Carroll will be sentenced on August 9, 2024, by United States District Judge Aleta A. Trauger. He faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years and a maximum sentence of life.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Monica R. Morrison and Juliet Aldridge prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Tennessee
