Fort Worth Predator Gets 50 Years for Child Porn

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – Pedro Jose Meza, 35, will spend the next half-century behind bars after being sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for sickening crimes against a child. U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means handed down the sentence today, along with a lifetime of supervised release, following Meza’s guilty plea to two counts of child pornography offenses, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

The depravity began in June 2014. According to court documents, Meza knowingly exploited a six-year-old minor, coercing her into sexually explicit conduct solely for the purpose of creating a visual depiction of the abuse. The horrific act took place within a Fort Worth home where Meza resided with the child and her mother – a betrayal of trust that will haunt the victim for life.

But the abuse didn’t stop there. In October 2015, Meza further demonstrated his callous disregard for decency by distributing a one minute, thirty-one second video depicting an adult male engaging in sexual intercourse with a prepubescent female. He used the internet and the Kik messaging application to spread this vile content, amplifying the harm to vulnerable victims.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents brought Meza to justice. On November 5, 2015, they approached him at his place of work in Fort Worth, in connection with a child pornography investigation. Meza readily admitted to trading child pornography through the Kik messaging app – a clear confession of guilt. He has been in custody since that date.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice, designed to aggressively combat the escalating epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The program brings together federal, state, and local resources to identify, apprehend, and prosecute predators like Meza, and to rescue the innocent victims they target.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem spearheaded the prosecution. This conviction serves as a stark warning: those who prey on children will be relentlessly pursued and face the full weight of the law. For more information on Project Safe Childhood, visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. Internet safety resources are also available at http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

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