Berea Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

 LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Berea, Ky., man, Larry Dale Foley, Jr., 48, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday, before Chief U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, to employing, using, persuading, inducing, enticing, and coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography.

According to Foley’s plea agreement and other court records, a tip submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, from Tumblr, showed that a blog that Foley owned had distributed 46 images and two videos of child pornography.  On January 6, 2020, law enforcement searched Foley’s residence and seized electronic devices that contained child pornography.  Foley was arrested and has been held in federal custody since that time.  

The devices seized were processed and showed that Foley had produced child pornography of himself and a female minor, in the form of videos and still images.  In his guilty plea agreement, Foley admitted to knowing that the images and videos he created with the minor victim were produced using materials that were shared via computer and cell phone.                         

Foley was indicted in February 2020.

“Make no mistake, the production of child pornography is a violent crime, subjecting the victim to physical and emotional abuse when it is made and then continuing that abuse each and every time it is shared,” said Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “Protecting vulnerable victims from this type of unspeakable harm is of the highest priorities for law enforcement.  I commend the outstanding investigative efforts of the FBI and the Berea Police Department that resulted in the defendant’s conviction.”

“The impact on children of being abused and exploited is life-long,” said James Robert Brown Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office. “Those who prey on the vulnerability of children should know that the FBI and our law enforcement partners will never stop working to put them behind bars.”  

U.S. Attorney Duncan, SAC Brown; and Chief Eric Scott, Berea Police Department, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the Berea Police Department. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Marye. 

Foley is scheduled to be sentenced in December 2020. He faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison. However, any sentence will be imposed by the Court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal sentencing statutes. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals 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.