By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


A Genesee County man has been sentenced on federal child pornography charges that were filed after authorities say he created and distributed illicit material from a Livingston County residence.

28-year-old Austin Lash was charged last year with production, possession and transportation of child pornography after a grand jury indictment alleged he used Facebook to send himself a clip of what appeared to be a young child being sexually assaulted. But in July Lash agreed to plead guilty to a single count of transportation of child pornography in exchange for the other counts being dropped.

In federal court on Tuesday, he was sentenced to serve six and a half years in federal prison. While that was above the minimum five year sentence he faced, it was well below the just over 11 years that prosecutors had been seeking. He must also undergo a minimum of five years of probation and register as a sex offender for at least 20 years.

Federal authorities were alerted after the clip was flagged by Facebook. A subsequent search of Lash's Clio residence turned up approximately 4,000 images of child sexually abusive material, including a video of Lash engaging in sexually explicit conduct while standing over a sleeping nine-year-old child. Detectives were able to determine that incident occurred at his parent’s home in Deerfield Township.

Lash was originally charged in Livingston County, but those charges were dropped so they could be re-filed in federal court.