Mom admitted oral sex on 5-month-old. But she’s not guilty of criminal sexual conduct, Michigan jury says

A Michigan woman who admitted to performing oral sex on her 5-month-old child was found not guilty of criminal sexual conduct by a jury on Thursday.

Jazmine Pacyga, 20, live-streamed video of herself performing the sex act on her baby in February 2017, according to court records. Pacyga sent the video to Nathan Osborne, 32, who was sentenced to 37 years in prison in October for coercing Pacyga into abusing the child and sharing the footage.

Pacyga could have faced life in prison had she been found guilty of first-degree felony criminal sexual conduct during the two-day trial in Muskegon County, MLive reports. But to be convicted of the charge, prosecutors had to prove Pacyga penetrated the child, which she denied. Screenshots Osborne took from the video were used as evidence, but they did not show penetration and video of the abuse doesn’t exist anymore.

A Muskegon Township police officer testified that Pacyga admitted to penetration. That was prosecutors’ only evidence suggesting penetration occurred, according to the newspaper.

Pacyga was found guilty of lesser charges of producing child sexually abusive material, which could result in up to 30 years behind bars because of her habitual offender status, MLive reports. Pacyga will be sentenced for that conviction in May.

Pacyga was arrested in February 2017, the same month the incident occurred, WOOD reports, and Osborne was indicted on federal charges for the incident in April 2017. Police began investigating after Osborne sent screenshots of the video to Pacyga’s friend, who reached out to authorities.

Osborne also distributed video of another woman fondling a 4-year-old’s genitals, according to a federal indictment of Osborne. That woman — Kailee Marie Perez, 25 — was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for sending Osborne the video she’d created of the abuse.

A social worker who evaluated Perez said she didn’t have a sexual interest in children, according to court records. Instead, Perez produced the video for her drug dealer, Osborne, “upon whom she had developed an unhealthy dependency.” Perez had a history of heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and prescription drug abuse, court records said.

Osborne pleaded guilty to charges for distributing Perez’ video, and to the charge of coercing Pacyga, according to a federal plea agreement. In exchange, other federal charges Osborne was facing were dismissed.

Pacyga said in court that she had previously sent Osborne a video of herself having sex with her boyfriend, as well as nude photos of just herself, according to MLive. She testified she did it “because I needed money.” Osborne came to pay her for sending him those images, she said, and when they went into a wooded area to do drugs he raped her, Pacyga said. Later Osbourne contacted her online saying “he wanted a video of me sexually assaulting my son,” Pacyga said, adding that he threatened her and her family.

Hours after that, the video was produced, she said. Prosecutors said Pacgya didn’t raise the rape allegations until about a year after the video was produced and she was initially arrested. The judge disallowed the testimony about the alleged rape, MLive reports.

This story was originally published April 12, 2018 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Mom admitted oral sex on 5-month-old. But she’s not guilty of criminal sexual conduct, Michigan jury says."