SC lawmaker to plead guilty in child mistreatment material case

A former South Carolina lawmaker accused of exchanging hundreds of child sexual abuse videos agreed Friday to plead guilty to federal charges that he distributed sexual abuse material involving children, prosecutors said. RJ May, who resigned from the state House earlier this year, is accused of using the screen name joebidennnn69 to trade roughly 220 files of toddlers and young children on the Kik messaging network during a five-day period in spring 2024, according to court filings.

May, 38, signed court papers to change his plea days after prosecutors detailed how they planned to present evidence at a scheduled trial. He is expected to formally enter the plea in federal court. He faces five counts of distributing child sexual abuse material, each carrying a potential prison term of five to 20 years. Under the plea agreement he must register as a sex offender and could be fined up to $250,000.

Prosecutors presented logs and other digital evidence showing uploads and downloads of the material that overlapped with his work activity, including emailing clients, making phone calls and performing web searches while messaging on Kik. Authorities also used charts to describe the...