An Oklahoma City man has been sentenced to federal prison for sexually abusing a child and capturing the abuse on video.
Jeremy Lee Peterson, 44, was sentenced to the statutory maximum sentence of 360 months in federal prison and a life term of supervised release.
According to court documents, on February 18, 2022, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding a video depicting child sexual abuse.
Agents reviewed the video’s file data and suspected it was created in a specific apartment in Eugene, Oregon. The agents identified distinctive physical characteristics of the abuser in the video, including a scorpion tattoo on the man’s chest.
On February 24, 2022, investigators searched the apartment and identified furniture and bed sheets consistent with those appearing in the abuse video. Investigators also found photos of Peterson on social media and obtained a booking photo from a previous arrest, both of which matched the likeness and physical attributes, including the scorpion tattoo, as depicted in the abuse video.
During their investigation, agents learned the minor victim and the victim’s parent had recently moved to a residence in Oklahoma that matched Peterson’s most recent address.
On February 28, 2022, agents in Oklahoma executed a search warrant on Peterson’s address and found the minor victim and parent living there. Peterson was arrested and the child was rescued. Soon after, agents learned that Peterson had recently helped the victim and the victim’s parent move to his residence in Oklahoma.
On March 15, 2022, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a one-count indictment charging Peterson with sexually exploiting a child and producing child pornography.
Months after Peterson was charged, his minor victim contacted law enforcement to discuss the abuse in Oregon and disclose additional abuse in Oklahoma.
On March 27, 2024, Peterson pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting a child.
