A man incarcerated in Dallas County for forcing a teenager to make sexually explicit videos has been sentenced to more than 28 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said.
Obadiah Fraser, 26, pleaded guilty to producing child pornography in May 2023. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr on Wednesday ordered him to register as a sex offender and sentenced him to 28 years and four months in prison. Fraser’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fraser was arrested in Dallas County on an unrelated charge of possession of child pornography while communicating with a 17-year-old girl, prosecutors said in a news release.
Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown said in a statement Friday afternoon that Fraser committed the crime at a kiosk, the jail’s general public area that functions like a phone booth, and is “closely monitored by our staff,” the statement said.
Prosecutors initially claimed he communicated using an iPad, but the sheriff’s office corrected the prosecutor’s statement. Brown said in the statement that the jail does not have iPads and that he did not use a tablet at the facility when committing the crime.
“The Dallas County Jail provides secure tablets with controlled content,” the statement said.
According to prosecutors, Fraser and the girl communicated via a video visit platform that requires users to be at least 18 years old. The girl used the account of Fraser’s cellmate’s wife, the press release said.
During the calls – which were monitored by a third-party company – Fraser asked the girl to make sexually explicit videos of herself. When she hesitated, he yelled at her and cursed at her, the release said.
Dallas County Jail officials confronted Fraser with the videos, and he admitted to making them and admitting he knew the girl was 17, prosecutors said. He was indicted in federal court in September 2022.
Dallas County online court records show Fraser was arrested and charged with unrelated possession of child pornography in 2020. He pleaded guilty in July 2022 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Prosecutors said the Homeland Security Investigations Dallas field office conducted the investigation into the federal charges with assistance from the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and in cooperation with the jail.
“This defendant intentionally exploited a minor by forcing the victim to produce sexually explicit material without regard for the emotional and physical distress his crimes would cause,” said Lester R. Hayes Jr., Special Agent in Charge of HSI Dallas. “I am grateful for the collaboration between HSI and our law enforcement partners in bringing another child molester to justice.”
CORRECTION, 6:12 p.m., August 16, 2024: In an earlier version of this story, the U.S. Attorney’s Office misidentified the technology Fraser used to communicate with the victim. He spoke to her through kiosks in the prison.
