Eastern District of California | Former Kern County man sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexual exploitation of a minor

FRESNO, Calif. — James Patrick Breedlove III, 34, formerly of Bakersfield, was sentenced today to 20 years and 10 months in prison, followed by life imprisonment with supervised release, for sexual exploitation of a minor, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, between January 2019 and August 2020, Breedlove knowingly coerced minors into engaging in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images and videos of such conduct. In January 2020, Breedlove posed as a 16-year-old in order to obtain images and videos of a minor victim engaging in sexually explicit conduct. After receiving one such image, Breedlove threatened to send it to other children at the minor victim’s school if she did not send more images and videos of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Court documents also show that Breedlove used Snapchat to contact multiple other underage victims between the ages of 13 and 17. By misrepresenting his identity and threatening to distribute the images, Breedlove coerced other underage victims into sending images and videos of themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany M. Gunter prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Abuse and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to investigate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the Resources tab for information about Internet safety education.