Jason Ford, Child Pornography Production, Florida 2018

In a shocking case of exploitation, Jason Ford, a 42-year-old man from Dothan, Alabama, has pleaded guilty to attempting to produce child pornography in South Florida.

According to the court docket, Ford, a former teaching assistant and travel softball coach, falsely represented himself to be a University of North Florida and University of South Carolina softball coach in order to have contact with female high school softball players.

Ford engaged in a calculated scheme to gain the trust of minor females who aspired to earn college athletic scholarships. He engaged in inappropriate conversations with teen softball players in Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Ultimately, Ford made contact online with an undercover agent he believed to be a 15-year-old female softball player. Ford was arrested after he sent the teen, who in fact was an undercover agent, currency for a sexually explicit video.

Jason Ford, a teaching assistant and travel softball coach, is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom on February 1, 2019, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney M. Catherine Koontz as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The FBI Miami, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Columbia, South Carolina Field Offices, along with the Dothan Police Department, assisted in the investigation.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.