Missouri Sex Offender Caught Again with Child Pornography

ST. LOUIS - A man residing in a halfway house after serving prison time for producing child pornography on Tuesday admitted being caught again with child sexual abuse material.

Joseph Trahan, 62, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. He admitted that in August of 2025, he was on supervised release and residing at a halfway house. After learning that Trahan had an unauthorized electronic device and had been viewing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), Trahan's probation officer met with him on August 6, 2025. Subsequent investigation discovered conversations between Trahan and another registered sex offender on supervised release in another judicial district about sex with a child, as well as more than 600 images containing CSAM. Trahan also had unregistered and unauthorized accounts on TikTok and Instagram.

Trahan is scheduled to be sentenced on September 9. Both the U.S. Attorney's Office and Trahan's lawyer have agreed to recommend 10 years in prison.

In 2007, Trahan, originally of Phoenix, Arizona, was convicted of production of child pornography in U.S. District Court in St. Louis and sentenced to 270 months in prison, followed by a life term of supervised release. Trahan videotaped himself engaged in sexual activity with a 16-year-old girl and distributed the tapes through the mail in exchange for money.

The U.S. Probation Office and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kyle Bateman and Sila Karacal are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.