Former Kern County Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor

FRESNO, Calif. - James Patrick Breedlove III, 34, formerly of Bakersfield, was sentenced today to 20 years and 10 months in prison to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release for sexual exploitation of a minor, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, between January 2019 and August 2020, Breedlove knowingly coerced minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images and videos of such conduct. In January 2020, Breedlove posed as a 16-year-old to obtain images and videos of a minor victim engaging in sexually explicit conduct. After receiving one such image, Breedlove threatened to send it to other children at the minor victim's school if she did not send more images and videos of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Court documents also indicate that Breedlove used Snapchat to contact multiple other minor victims between the ages of 13 and 17 years old. By misrepresenting his identity and threatening to distribute the images, Breedlove coerced other minor victims to send images and videos of themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany M. Gunter prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the "resources" tab for information about internet-safety education.