Former High School Wrestling Coach Convicted of Attempting to Send Obscene Material to Minor

BOSTON - A Burlington, Mass. man was convicted yesterday following a three-day jury trial of attempting to send obscene material to an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl on Kik messenger.

Stephen James Lemelin, 51, was convicted of three counts of attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for March 26, 2026. Lemelin was arrested and charged in May 2024 and subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2024.

Evidence presented at trial established that, over the course of five months, Lemelin - a Burlington High School wrestling coach at the time - sent sexually explicit messages and obscene material over Kik Messenger to an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl. In the messages, Lemelin sent three separate obscene photographs of his genitals to the purported child and proposed meeting in person for sex.

The charges of attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by Customs and Border Protection and the Arlington, Boston, Brookline, Burlington, Salisbury and Winchester Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David G. Tobin and Eric L. Hawkins 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 the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the DOJ's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.