LOUISVILLE, KY – The U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Kentucky is reporting that a federal criminal complaint and arrest warrant were issued Friday charging a Louisville school teacher with distributing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and distributing child pornography.
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky and Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Stansbury of the FBI Louisville Field Office made the announcement.
According to court records, in December 2023 and January 2024, Jordan A. Fautz, 39, while employed as a 7th and 8th grade religion teacher at St. Stephen Martyr Catholic School in Louisville, Kentucky, distributed child sexual abuse materials to a law enforcement officer working online undercover. Certain of these materials had been manipulated by morphing or photoshopping original child sexual abuse materials with other, non-explicit images of minors. For example, in one such instance, the nude image of a minor victim depicted her face transposed by means of photoshop or morphing technology onto a different nude female’s body, effectively generating child sexual abuse material.
Fautz will be scheduled to make his initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. If convicted on the charges in the complaint, Fautz faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison and maximum potential penalties of 40 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and at least five years of supervised release. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
There is no parole in the federal system.
The FBI is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Spencer McKiness is prosecuting the case.
The FBI Louisville Field Office is seeking to identify potential victims of Jordan Fautz. If you or your minor dependent(s) have information about Fautz, please contact the FBI at . Your responses are voluntary but may be useful in the federal investigation in identifying you or your child as a potential victim. Victims may be eligible for certain services, restitution, and rights under federal and/or state law.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
###
