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Lawyer Guilty of Making Porn With Clients’ Kids

PIERRE, S.D. (CN) - A former public defender for South Dakota pleaded guilty this week to sexually exploiting one of his client's sons and featuring them in child pornography, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

According to the factual basis statement filed in Federal Court on Nov. 4, between June 2011 and July 2014 defendant Christopher Jansen "did knowingly use, persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a minor under the age of 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct."

Jansen was a state public defender for Walworth County from 2009 until 2012, and established a law practice in Mobridge afterwards, according federal prosecutors.

The man told FBI investigators that he met his victims when he represented their parents in a family law matter. He "befriended the client's family and developed a relationship with the minors. [He] visited their home, the family visited defendant's home, and there were situations where the defendant stayed overnight with the children," according to the factual basis statement.

Jansen filmed at least eight instances of oral sex with a boy from the family in the boy's home, and he took at least six photos of the encounters, according to an FBI interview. He then uploaded these videos and images to a child pornography site "that requires its users to continually upload child pornography in order to gain and keep membership," the factual basis statement said.

On the website, Jansen indicated that he was interested in boys aged 5 to 12, and he used an image of his client's child as his avatar, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Although Jansen engaged in sexual encounters with three of his client's children, the factual basis statement says he produced videos and images of only two of them. He also told the FBI that he had given the older two boys the chance to "opt-out" of the sexual encounters, but that he did not give the youngest boy, who was between the ages of 5 and 7 when the incidents occurred, an "opt-out" because he was "too young to understand."

Jansen's partner of 15 years, Franklin Gross, told the FBI that "Jansen's attraction to minors has been an issue that dates back to their days in college."

Jansen admitted to the FBI that he refers to himself as a "pedophile" and has been attracted to children "since he was around 10 to 12 years old and that he never progressed out of being attracted to little boys."

"Some of the most important work we do is prosecuting child pornography cases," prosecuting attorney Randolf Seiler said in a statement. "These are vicious and dangerous crimes, committed by dark and demonized individuals. This case was made even more disturbing by the fact that Jansen was a trusted professional who took advantage of his client's family, and groomed those children to be his victims. His admission of guilt will take one more predator off the streets."

The prosecuting attorneys declined further comment by email on Wednesday.

Jansen's attorney, Edward Albright with the Federal Public Defender's office, was not available to comment by phone and did not respond to an emailed request for the same on Wednesday.

Jansen has already been sentenced by a South Dakota state court to serve 50 years in prison for prior child-rape convictions, according to the Justice Department, and he faces up to 50 years incarceration and/or a $250,000 fine on the current charges.

He is currently in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting further hearings.

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