Stephen James Lemelin, a former wrestling coach at Burlington High School, was sentenced on March 26 to two years in prison for sending obscene material to an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl on Kik messenger.
Lemelin, age 51 and from Burlington, Massachusetts, was convicted in December of three counts of attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor. After his arrest in May and indictment by a federal grand jury the following month, Lemelin faced charges related to sexually explicit communications sent over five months while he worked as a high school wrestling coach.
According to the announcement made by United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Division, Lemelin sent three separate obscene photographs of his genitals through Kik Messenger and proposed meeting the purported child for sex. The case involved cooperation from Customs and Border Protection as well as multiple local police departments including Arlington, Boston, Brookline, Burlington, Salisbury and Winchester. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David G. Tobin and Eric L. Hawkins prosecuted the case.
The investigation was conducted under Project Safe Childhood—a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse by coordinating resources among federal, state and local agencies.
Project Safe Childhood continues its efforts both to prosecute individuals who exploit children online and identify victims needing assistance.