Jury Found Ohio Man Guilty of Coercing and Enticing a Minor Child

TULSA, Okla. - A federal jury convicted Thomas Edward Petro, 32, of Ashtabula, Ohio, for Coercion and Enticement of a Minor.

The evidence presented at trial showed that Petro shared sexually explicit messages, voice recordings, pictures, and videos of himself with a 13-year-old minor child. The evidence further showed that Petro solicited the minor to take sexually explicit photos of their body and send the photos to him.

The inappropriate relationship was discovered when the minor child told a friend. That friend told the school resource officer, who immediately contacted the principal and reported the incident to the FBI.

When the lead FBI agent testified, he confirmed that the minor child did disclose that they were only 13 years old. After going over all of the sexually explicit evidence in front of the jury, the agent also confirmed that Petro never asked the minor child to stop engaging in sexual activity.

The FBI and Adair Police Department investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kate Brandon and Scott Dunn prosecuted it.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. 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.