Disbarred Miami attorney convicted of producing child porn sent to prison for 16 years
A disbarred Miami attorney who once worked as a state prosecutor and then as a civil trial lawyer is serving 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to producing child pornography involving online chat rooms with teenage boys, according to federal court records.
William Power McCaughan Jr., grew up on Key Biscayne and graduated from Christopher Columbus High School, University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University Law Center, records show. McCaughan, 42, faced up to 30 years in prison at his sentencing in Miami federal court; instead, U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz imposed a term slightly longer than the minimum-mandatory 15-year sentence for the internet child-porn offense.
“Billy still has a long way to go, but he is committed to continuing the road to recovery,” his defense attorneys, Joseph Rosenbaum and David Rothman, wrote in a memo before McCaughan’s sentencing in late August. “He is also committed to serving his time, making amends and paying it forward.
“Billy is not a lost cause and is worthy of a second chance to get things right.”
READ MORE: A Coral Gables attorney asked to be disbarred while facing child pornography charges
McCaughan’s federal child-porn case was filed in July of last year when he was working as an attorney for the Morgan Law Group in Coral Gables. Earlier in his career, McCaughan, the son of a Key Biscayne lawyer, had worked as a state prosecutor in Southwest Florida.
The initial charges against McGaughan dealt with receiving child-porn images over the internet, leading to the revocation of his law license for five years by the Florida Supreme Court in December.
But in February, federal prosecutors upped the charges to include production of child-porn images, a more serious offense. Three months later, McCaughan pleaded guilty to the production charge while the other offenses were dismissed.
Here’s how the FBI case unfolded, according to a factual statement filed with McCaughan’s plea agreement.
Wanted to have sex with 11-year-old girl
In December 2022, McCaughan, under the name “wmccaugh” on the Kik file-sharing app, watched video of another user’s 11-year-old niece and told the user he wanted to take the girl “on a road trip” and, later, spend a weekend performing sexual acts on her “before she develops too much.”
McCaughan, who was speaking to an FBI undercover officer, expressed “frustration that sex was treated as private and taboo and off limits to kids” and he thought “lots of kids are horny and curious from a young age and even if they aren’t or don’t like it a lot, they need to learn.”
Then, last year, agents obtained search warrants for McCaughan’s home, vehicle and electronic devices, including a cellular phone. Agents located the Kik application logged in for use under the “wmccaugh” user name.
Chats with teenage boys
Agents discovered chats on his cell phone between McCaughan and a 16-year-old boy and 14-year-old boy. They involved discussions of “sexual acts with pre-pubescent minors with one of the minor victims,” according to the factual statement filed with McCaughan’s plea agreement.
The first minor victim turned 17 during the course of his chatting with McCaughan.
On March 11 , 2021 , McCaughan chatted with the second minor victim and asked about his age. The minor victim told McCaughan that he was 16 years old.
“During their conversation, [McCaughan] asked [the second victim] to send him images of his genitalia,” according to the statement.
McCaughan then said: “let me see more of you,” to “spread that ass and let me see the hole I’m going to wreck,” and “let’s see the rest of your body” and “cock,” among other things, according to the statement. “ In response, the second victim “sent him multiple media files of his naked penis.”
The images depicted the [second minor victim] “engaged in sexually explicit conduct and therefore constitute child pornography,” according to prosecutors Abbie Waxman and Lauren Astigarraga-Little.
