Texas Border Business
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas
HOUSTON – A 61-year-old Houston man has been ordered to federal prison for possession of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child.
Jerry James Svatek Jr. pleaded guilty Dec. 5, 2025.
U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. has now sentenced Svatek to 480 months for the production and possession of child pornography convictions, respectively. They will run concurrently for a total 480-month-term of imprisonment. At the hearing, the court heard Svatek previously served as president of the Boling Independent School District Board of Trustees and had joined an underground online community where he continued distributing images of a close family relative.
The court also considered information from the impact statements from the parents of the minor which detailed the harm Svatek caused to the family.
In handing down the prison terms, the court noted the particularly egregious nature of the offense by exploited his position within the family. Svatek was further ordered to pay $78,500 in restitution to the victims and will serve the rest of his life on supervised release following the completion of his prison term. During that time, he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.
Authorities identified Svatek in 2025 when conducting undercover investigations into an online forum known as FetLife – a social networking platform designed for people interested in alternative sexual lifestyles. It revealed Svatek was sharing child sexual abuse material online.
During undercover conversations with Svatek, he exchanged multiple images taken from videos of himself with the victim. In some messages, he discussed the desire to have sex with prepubescent minors and admitted to sexual contact with at least one three-year-old victim and sought others that engaged in similar conduct.
On June 17, 2025, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop on his vehicle where they seized a cellular phone.
Forensic examination of the device revealed more than approximately 150 videos depicting child sexual abuse material. The images depicted prepubescent victims as young as six months of age engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Svatek admitted to creating videos and distributing still images over the messaging platform.
Svatek admitted to creating videos of the minor relative in the bathtub and distributing the still images over the messaging platform.
He has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations; Boone County, North Carolina, Police Department; Texas Rangers; Texas Department of Criminal Justice; and Wharton County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer K. Teper prosecuted the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative the Department of Justice launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section leads PSC, which marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and identifies and rescues victims. For more information about PSC, please visit DOJ’s PSC page. For more information about internet safety education, please visit the resources tab on that page.
Updated June 26, 2026
