A former South Carolina state lawmaker was sentenced this week to 17 1/2 years in prison for distributing child sexual abuse material.
US District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie called the material Robert John “RJ”May distributed “more severe than any another she has seen, noting that the founding member of South Carolina’s ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus “claimed to be an advocate for children at the State House but was their abuser behind closed doors,” WIS reported.
May pleaded guilty in September to five counts of distributing child sexual abuse material, half of what he was originally charged in June, when he pleaded not guilty.
A federal grand jury indictment says that May, using the user names “joebidennnn69” and “Eric Rentling,” distributed the child pornography material over the Kik app in April 2024, as CrimeOnline reported.
The US Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina said that “Kik flagged several videos from the username “’joebidennnn69’″ as containing child sexual abuse” and reported them to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Investigators determined that the account was connected to the home IP address and specific mobile device belonging to May.
Investigators told the court the “joebidennnn69” account was created on March 30, 2024, and deleted five days later after sending more then 1,100 messages, most explicit in nature. They identified dozens of different videos and images of child sexual abuse material that had been saved to the account.
According to WIS, federal prosecutors asked Currie for a 20-year sentence after his guilty plea, while May’s lawyers asked for five years in prison followed by house arrest at his family’s farm in Virginia.
May will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life and will also be on 20 years of court supervision after his release, unless he is pardoned. He also loses the right to vote and to own a firearm, per South Carolina law.
May was contrite in court, apologizing to his victims.
When he was arrested in June, however, his attorney suggested he was framed by his political enemies. May eventually fired his attorney and said he was going to represent himself, although he isn’t a lawyer.
He was suspended from the state legislature after his arrested and resigned two months later, admitting that the allegations against him were, in fact, true.
Prosecutors say he ultimately sent nearly 500 videos to users in 18 states and six countries. The five he pleaded guilty to are among the most disgusting and depraved, they said.
May, 39, was already under investigation for child sexual abuse material in November 2024, when he was re-elected to the South Carolina State House. Federal investigators had raided his home and seized multiple electronic devices by that time — and the search was public knowledge, but voters cast their ballots for him anyway.
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[Featured image: RJ May/Edgefield County Detention Center]