BIRMINGHAM, AL — A 35-year-old Birmingham man has pleaded guilty in federal court to producing explicit videos of a child victim, reversing his legal strategy immediately following jury selection for his scheduled trial.
Robert Lee Ford, Jr. entered a guilty plea to two counts of sexual exploitation of children before Chief U.S. District Judge Madeline H. Haikala.
Hospital Abuse Report Initiated Investigation
The federal case stems from an incident on January 24, 2025, when a deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to the Children’s of Alabama hospital in Birmingham. Medical personnel had contacted authorities after a mother reported that her 14-year-old daughter had been severely assaulted by Ford.
Following initial interviews at the hospital, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies secured a state search warrant for Ford’s apartment, taking him into custody on localized state charges.
FBI Forensic Review Uncovers Digital Production
Due to the digital components of the case, the FBI Birmingham’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force stepped in to expand the scope of the probe. Federal agents obtained and executed subsequent forensic search warrants targeting Ford’s cloud storage and online digital accounts…