Former Rep. RJ May pleads guilty to sending ‘disgusting and depraved’ child sex abuse videos

COLUMBIA — Former Rep. RJ May told a federal judge Monday that he used an account under the name joebidennnn69 to send videos of children being sexually abused.

May, acting as his own attorney, signed a plea agreement last week, more than three months after his arrest on charges of sending child sexual abuse videos. Monday’s hearing formally changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, waiving his right to a jury trial.

The West Columbia Republican will remain in the Edgefield County jail until his sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for Jan. 14.

The 38-year-old’s plea agreement applied to five of the 10 videos with which he was charged. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining five counts. Each count could bring a sentence of five to 20 years, along with a fine of up to $250,000, plus more than $40,000 in other fees. Federal inmates can’t receive parole.

Prosecutors: App linked to ex-Rep. May sent child sexual abuse videos worldwide

A portion of the fine will go to children depicted in the more than 220 videos identified on the Kik account May said he operated. Through other cases, investigators have identified 21 of the 62 children in the videos, said U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling.

Many of the same videos appear in multiple cases as people trade them around, Stirling said.

“Every download revictimizes these children and fuels this evil industry,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie will determine how much will go to the identified victims, who live worldwide.

A federal probation officer will prepare a report recommending a sentence, but Currie will have the ultimate decision over how much prison time May serves and how much money he owes. Currie will consider the plea agreement, as well as the dismissed charges, when deciding the sentence, she said Monday.

If May leaves prison during his lifetime, he will spend between five years and the rest of his life under supervised release, which requires submitting monthly reports and following other conditions a judge will set at a later date, Currie said.

May will also be required to register as a sex offender. As a felon, he can never again vote or hold public office, Currie said.

After advising May of his rights, including that he would not be able to change his mind, Currie asked May how he wanted to plead.

“Guilty, your honor,” said the married father of two young children.

The 10 videos May was charged with sending, including the five he pleaded guilty to Monday, were “the worst of the worst” of the videos found on the Kik account, depicting “some of the most disgusting and depraved stuff I’ve ever seen or heard about,” Stirling said.

Ex-SC Rep. RJ May to plead guilty to sending child sex abuse videos

Although prosecutors felt they had an overwhelming amount of evidence proving May sent the videos, the plea agreement takes away the unpredictability of a jury, Stirling said.

“This gives a certainty that he pled to five counts, and he will serve time in the federal penitentiary,” Stirling told reporters after the hourlong hearing.

May, wearing the same orange and white striped jumpsuit in which he has appeared in nearly every court hearing, stared straight ahead as Matthews read descriptions of each of the five videos in court Monday.

Under the plea agreement May made with prosecutors last week, he will not be able to appeal, unless he’s arguing the prosecutors engaged in misconduct, if the law changes in any way that would affect him, or if he claims his attorneys were ineffective.

At May’s request, Currie allowed May to rehire his public defenders, who have only been able to answer his procedural questions since he decided to represent himself, for the sake of his sentencing hearing.

May’s trial, which was set to begin Oct. 9, would have chronicled how investigators tracked a tip that an account on messaging app Kik was sending videos of child sexual abuse to the West Columbia home and personal phone of a state representative, prosecutors said. A founding member of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus in the South Carolina House, May resigned in August from the seat representing part of Lexington County.

Jurors would have heard summaries of the videos during the trial, along with testimony from experts on child sexual abuse videos, logs of messages May exchanged with other Kik users and other activity on May’s cellphone and laptop while the videos were being sent, showing he was the one using the devices at the time, said Scott Matthews, an assistant U.S. attorney.

“The user of the phone was doing things RJ May would’ve been doing,” Matthews said Monday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is continuing to investigate who was running the accounts with which May exchanged videos, Stirling said, without giving more information.

A special election will determine who replaces May, who was first elected in 2020.

Five Republicans and one Democrat have filed for the race. The GOP primary will take place Oct. 21, followed by a general election Dec. 23.