United States of America v. Joseph Trahan

St. Louis, Missouri, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with possession of child pornography.

Reported by: Kent Morlan

Joseph Trahan, age 62, admitted that in August of 2025, he was on supervised release and residing at a halfway house. After learning that Trahan had an unauthorized electronic device and had been viewing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), Trahan’s probation officer met with him on August 6, 2025. Subsequent investigation discovered conversations between Trahan and another registered sex offender on supervised release in another judicial district about sex with a child, as well as more than 600 images containing CSAM. Trahan also had unregistered and unauthorized accounts on TikTok and Instagram.

Trahan is scheduled to be sentenced on September 9. Both the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Trahan’s lawyer have agreed to recommend 10 years in prison.

In 2007, Trahan, originally of Phoenix, Arizona, was convicted of production of child pornography in U.S. District Court in St. Louis and sentenced to 270 months in prison, followed by a life term of supervised release. Trahan videotaped himself engaged in sexual activity with a 16-year-old girl and distributed the tapes through the mail in exchange for money.

The U.S. Probation Office and the FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kyle Bateman and Sila Karacal are prosecuting the case.

The Defendant elected to plead guilty and was sentenced to 270 Months, Counts 1 and 2 to run concurrently followed by Supervised Release Term of Life with standard conditions plus sex offender restrictions; substance abuse testing/treatment and reasonable random searches. There is a special assessment of $200 due immediately; Court recommends sex offender evaluation; placement as near as possible to Portland Oregon. Defendant is remanded to US Marshal