Terre Haute resident, 33-year-old Joshua Lee Schatz, has been dealt a 10-year federal prison sentence following a guilty plea for possession of child sexual abuse material, this followed by another 15 years of supervised release, as detailed in an announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana.
The investigation began with a tip received by the Indiana State Police on February 3, 2023, indicating that Schatz was involved in the transmission of anime and computer-generated images that depicted the sexual abuse of toddlers and infants, the obtained text messages were shockingly explicit, revealing assaults on children by adults, and dating back to March 10, 2023, law enforcement officials found hundreds of similar abusive images and videos on Schatz's electronic devices in a search of his home, and some of these depicted the horrifying abuse of children as young as babies under 6-months-old, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
At the time of his arrest in 2023, Schatz was already registered as a sex offender due to a prior conviction involving a child under 14, revealing a disturbing history of re-offending, a dark continuity that underscores the necessity of his incarceration. "There is no greater responsibility for a society than to protect our children from harm—especially the youngest and most vulnerable, unable to speak for themselves," expressed Zachary A. Myers, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, adding that offenders like Schatz with a pattern of criminal activities display "their unwillingness or inability to stop committing these crimes, and a serious term of imprisonment is needed to protect the public and hold the offender accountable."
The concerted efforts of the FBI, Indiana State Police, and IMPD culminated in this successful prosecution, highlighting collaborative law enforcement response to such egregious crimes, the case, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Spiro, brought to a close by U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney, sets a precedent for the treatment of repeat sex offenders; the continued pursuit of justice for the innocent rests at the heart of these institutions as Myers acknowledges the dedicated work of Indiana’s exemplary ICAC Task Force in their ongoing commitment to the safety of our children, saying "we will continue to make our children safer by ensuring that these dangerous predators are in prison where they belong."
