A former band volunteer and bus driver for the Jackson Public School District has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the production of child pornography.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 34-year-old Jerrell Lea’Shun Jackson used his association with the Jackson State University Sonic Boom to entice unsuspecting minors to his apartment and the bus barn “for sexually explicit conduct and filming.”
Officials state that Jackson preyed on the most vulnerable children by fixing their band instruments, giving them a ride home after band practices and buying them food.
Jackson previously pled guilty on the charges in June.
This case was 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.usdoj.gov/psc.
