A federal grand jury in Tyler has indicted a North Texas man on child exploitation charges.

Todd Fleming, 53, from McKinney, was indicted by a federal grand jury April 17 and charged with 24 counts of sexually exploiting a child, and one count of possessing child pornography. He had his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Love April 24.

According to the indictment, from 1999 to 2007, Fleming coerced or persuaded minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of photographing such conduct. During that time period Fleming was operating a business in Tyler.

This case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

If convicted, Fleming faces a minimum of 15 years in federal prison for each of the exploitation charges and up to 10 years for the possession charge.

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