Lexington Woman Sentenced to 300 Months for Production of Child Pornography

LEXINGTON, KY- A Lexington, Kentucky, woman, Paige Cagle, 26, was sentenced in federal court on Thursday to 300 months in prison, by U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell, after previously admitting using a minor to engage in explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography.

According to Cagle’s plea agreement, on March 1, 2019, officers were informed from a third party that he had received pornographic images from Cagle involving children. Cagle admitted to officers that on 4 to 5 occasions, she had sexually abused a minor child from the age of 9 months to approximately 1.5 years old. Cagle further admitted that she made two videos of the sexual abuse while in Joplin, Missouri, and three videos of the sexual abuse while in Clark County, Kentucky. Cagle admitted to sharing the videos she made with others via Dropbox. Cagle further admitted that she possessed additional images of child pornography, specifically images of female children ages 4 to 13 years of age, in her Dropbox account and admitted that she would give out her Dropbox password, so that others could upload images into her account.

Cagle pleaded guilty in January 2020.

“The defendant’s production of child pornography was particularly heinous, and the sentence imposed was well justified by the facts of this case,” said Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.           

 Under federal law, Cagle must serve 85 percent of her prison sentence and upon release from prison will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life.

United States Attorney Duncan; Jerry Templet, Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations; and Commissioner Rodney Brewer, Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was directed by Homeland Security Investigations and KSP. The United States was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Tanner Bradley.

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 Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov.