A former OB/GYN at a Tulsa clinic has been sentenced in connection with a federal child pornography conviction involving a 16-year-old boy in Missouri.
Early this year, Shelby J. Coleman, 38, pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri to one count of using a minor to produce child pornography. Coleman, who has been in federal custody since his 2013 arrest, faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years, with a fine of $250,000.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool sentenced Coleman to 188 months (15 years plus 8 months) in prison. His sentence is to be served without parole, and upon release, he must serve 10 years of supervised release.
The case began in September 2013, when a Missouri father discovered sexually explicit text messages from an adult to his 16-year-old son. The messages included nude pictures the teen sent to Coleman at his request, and an exchange in which the teen admitted that he had never had anal sex, and Coleman offered to "show him the ropes."
The father notified state police that his an adult was engaging in sexually explicit conversation with his minor son. He then assumed control of his son's phone and, posing as his son, arranged to meet Coleman for sex. State troopers took over the investigation, and a trooper had the father cancel the initial meeting and got permission to take over the son's phone for the purpose of investigating the "active enticement" of the teen.
Coleman notified the investigator posing as the teen that he would be in the area on September 28, and the two arranged to meet for sex. Highway Patrol Troopers arrested Coleman in the hotel room where the arranged tryst was to take place.
The former doctor admitted not only to exchanging nude pictures with the Missouri teen and attempting to meet him for sex, but also to having sex with two 16-year-old boys and a 14-year-old boy in the Tulsa area.
Because the case crossed state lines between Oklahoma and Missouri, the United States government had jurisdiction over the case, and federal charges were filed.
Image credit: Nathan
