A former cop hailed as Louisiana’s Trooper of the Year just two years ago has pleaded guilty to distributing pornography involving children as young as 3 years old, federal prosecutors said.
Jason Boyet, a 14-year Louisiana State Police vet who won Troop L’s Trooper of the Year honors in 2018, pleaded guilty Wednesday to distributing images depicting the sexual exploitation of children, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana announced.
Boyet, of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and up to 20 years behind bars. He will also face a lifetime of supervised release and may be required to register as a sex offender when he’s sentenced in January, prosecutors said.
Court documents show an undercover FBI agent in February was introduced to Boyet in a chat room within an instant messaging app known to be used by purveyors of child porn.
Boyet then provided the undercover agent sexually suggestive and explicit photos of minors, including a girl whom Boyet said he had custody of, federal prosecutors said.
Investigators later executed a search warrant at Boyet’s home on Feb. 12 and found that he took explicit images of the prepubescent girl using his iPhone at least three times since December 2019, prosecutors said.
Boyet also accessed a link to an online account containing a trove of child porn, including at least 151 images and 195 videos showing children as young as 1 engaged in sex acts, prosecutors said.
Boyet was arrested on Feb. 12 after reporting to the headquarters of Louisiana State Police Troop L in Mandeville, where he worked, NOLA.com reports.
Boyet admitted sending and receiving the material, which one of his correspondents referred to as “naughties,” the website reports.
The decorated trooper, who initially pleaded not guilty, has since left the state police, although officials have not said whether he was terminated or resigned, according to the report. He was placed on administrative leave following his arrest, a Louisiana State Police spokesman said.
