Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Prosecutors ask judge to sentence ex republican A South Carolina lawmaker was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sending hundreds of videos of children being sexually abused to people across the country on social media, while also advocating for several laws aimed at protecting children.
RJ May asked the judge for leniency and a five-year prison sentence, saying he was addicted to porn and screens, made worse by the increased libido brought about by testosterone treatment. He said he wanted a chance out of prison to show people how easily porn can destroy lives and families.
Judge Cameron McGowan Curry will hear arguments from both sides on Wednesday before issuing a ruling in a federal courtroom just blocks from where May once served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives.
May, 39, pleaded guilty in September to what prosecutors described in court documents as a “five-day child pornography spree” in the spring of 2024.
May, who resigned earlier this year, is accused of using the screen name “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and toddlers on the Kik social media network, according to court documents detailing the video.
Prosecutors said May revictimized the children each time she shared the documents. They said his crimes showed an additional level of hypocrisy because he voted eight times to support laws to protect children or strengthen penalties for child abuse.
“May conducted an abusive and degrading child pornography distribution scheme that harmed and continues to harm hundreds of children. He sought out minors who had been sexually abused by their parents, and when he discovered the files, he sent those files to others. He chose to amplify and exacerbate their abuse,” prosecutors wrote in their brief asking for a 20-year sentence.
Federal probation officer guidelines called for a sentence of about 17 to 22 years in May.
Defense attorneys are asking for less than that, but they have not made a specific request in court documents. May wrote a note to the judge, apologizing multiple times and asking for a five-year sentence, noting that he would never again attend his son’s football games or have tea at home with his daughter.
“My arrest marked the rapid and complete destruction of all my hopes and dreams. Every plan was shattered. All worldly possessions were gone. I was left penniless. My crimes were publicized to a global audience. I brought shame and embarrassment to friends and family. My wife left me,” May wrote.
May’s plea for mercy included seven letters from relatives detailing how she had an abusive mother but still thrived, eventually topping her class and winning a William Jefferson Clinton Scholarship in 2008 to study Middle Eastern studies at the American University in Dubai. His father promised that Mei could live off his money virginia After being released from prison, he farmed and worked.
Prosecutors provided statements from several victims detailing how the videos continued to circulate and haunt them into adulthood.
May will have to pay $72,000 in restitution to his victims, register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and cannot vote or own a gun because he is a convicted felon.
May, who is entering his third term in the South Carolina House of Representatives, was attacking fellow Republicans for moving in a more conservative direction before his arrest.
“As legislators, we have an obligation to ensure that our children do not come to harm,” May said in January 2024 during a House debate on transgender care for minors.