A 22-year-old Cartersville man, guilty of charges including production of child pornography, was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in federal prison.
Joshua James Geer, in addition to pornography production charges, was found guilty of coercion of minors to engage in unlawful sex acts and possession of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“He is the type of predatory monster parents fear when their children are on the internet,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Yates in a press release.
Yates said the investigation dates back to February 2013 when Geer befriended a 17-year-old boy from Illinois on the internet. The relationship escalated when Geer convinced the minor to take cell phone pictures of himself and his 11-year-old sister performing sex acts.
On June 20, 2013, Yates said, a 16-year-old girl told a Florida detective she was chatting online with a person she thought was a girl but who was later identified as Geer. Geer sent her a photo of a girl around 4 years old. Yates said the 16-year-old tried to stop talking to Geer but he threatened to report her for possessing child pornography because of the photo.
Geer used the child pornography threat to force the girl to send him nude photographs.
Authorities then obtained arrest and search warrants for Geer. He had used the same phone to contact the Illinois boy as the Florida girl, Yates said. The iPhone confiscated during his arrest contained hundreds of images of child porn as well as evidence of more minors who were forced by Geer to send illicit images, which he shared online.
Authorities also found instructions for committing rape and a “kidnapping kit” in Geer’s home.
In addition to his prison time, Geer will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.
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