A federal criminal complaint and arrest warrant were issued on Friday, charging a Louisville school teacher with distributing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and distributing child pornography.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky says 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, 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. 

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.

The FBI Louisville Field Office is seeking to identify potential victims of Jordan Fautz. They say if you or your minor dependent(s) have information about Fautz, please contact the FBI at SSMtips@fbi.gov. 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 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 uses 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, go to www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”