Prosecutors want 20-year sentence for ex-South Carolina lawmaker for sharing child sex abuse videos

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence a former Republican South Carolina legislator to 20 years in prison for sending hundreds of videos of children being sexually abused to people across the country on social media as he advocated for several laws meant to protect kids.

RJ May is asking the judge for mercy and a five-year sentence, saying he was addicted to pornography and screens made worse by an increased sex drive from testosterone treatments. He said he wants a chance outside prison to be an example of how easily porn can destroy lives and families.

Judge Cameron McGowan Currie will listen to both sides Wednesday before handing down her decision in a federal courtroom just blocks from where May used to be a member of the South Carolina House.

May, 39, pleaded guilty in September to what prosecutors in court papers called a “five-day child pornography spree” in the spring of 2024.

May, who resigned earlier this year, is accused of using the screen name “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children on the Kik social media network, according to court documents that graphically detailed the videos.

Prosecutors said May revictimized those children every time he shared a file. They said his crime showed extra hypocrisy as he voted eight times for laws protecting children or strengthening penalties for abusing them.

“May operated an abusive and degrading child pornography distribution scheme that harmed and continues to harm hundreds of children. He sought out minors being sexually abused by their parents, and when he found those files, he sent them to others. He chose to amplify and compound their abuse,” prosecutors wrote in their brief asking for the 20-year sentence.

Guidelines from federal probation officials call for a sentence between about 17 to 22 years for May.

Defense attorneys are asking for less than that, but they did not make a specific request in court papers. May wrote a note to the judge saying he was sorry several times and asking for a five-year sentence, pointing out he will never watch his son's soccer games or have tea in his home with his daughter again.

“My arrest marked the swift and total destruction of all my hopes and dreams. Every plan has been shattered. Every worldly possession is gone. I have been made penniless. My crimes have been published to a global audience. I have brought shame and embarrassment to friends and family alike. My wife has left me," May wrote.

May's request for mercy included seven letters from his relatives detailing how May had an abusive mother but still thrived to end up near the top of his class and earning the William Jefferson Clinton Scholarship in 2008 to study Middle Eastern Studies at the American University in Dubai. His father promised May could live on his Virginia farm and work when he is released.

Prosecutors included statements from several victims detailing how the videos keep being passed around and haunt them well into their adulthood.

May will have to pay $72,000 in restitution to the victims, register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and can't vote or own a gun because he is a convicted felon.

May was in his third term in the South Carolina House and was attacking fellow Republicans to go in a more conservative direction before he was arrested.

“We as legislators have an obligation to insure that our children have no harm done to them,” May said in January 2024 on the House floor during a debate on transgender care for minors.