Jerry Michael Moore, a registered sex offender, was arrested at a Jacksonville cruise terminal with hidden camera recordings of a minor.
A U.S. District Judge sentenced Jerry Michael Moore, 42, of Indiana, to 40 years in federal prison for producing and attempting to produce child sexual abuse materials on Tuesday.
The sentencing, handed down by Judge Wendy W. Berger, will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Moore had pleaded guilty to the charges on June 12, 2025.
The case came to light on January 30, 2025, when Moore was returning to the United States from a cruise at the Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) Cruise Terminal. Due to his 2007 conviction in Indiana for sexual misconduct with a minor, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers flagged him for a search.
During the search, officers discovered a cellphone in Moore’s possession. A review of the device revealed multiple hidden video files of a minor female child stored in a secret folder within his photo gallery. Homeland Security Investigations was called to the scene and confirmed the presence of child sexual abuse materials on the device.
According to court documents, Moore agreed to speak with law enforcement and confessed to using multiple hidden cameras, including his cellphone, to secretly record the child. He admitted to using a hidden camera to record the child through a crawl space, capturing footage of the inside of a shower through a wall. Further examination of his cellphone uncovered additional surreptitious recordings of the child.
This investigation was a collaborative effort between United States Customs and Border Protection Officers and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Ashley Washington prosecuted the case.
The prosecution of Moore falls under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. The program coordinates federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children and to rescue victims.
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