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A former Walton County associate probate judge, who also served as a special assistant attorney general and family law attorney, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted online enticement of a minor, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced Wednesday. 

The charge against George Randolph "Randy" Jeffery, 59, stemmed from multiple online communications with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, federal investigators said.

Jeffery—whose practice in Monroe included advising clients on child support, adoption and family law—was actually communicating with the teen girl's father, who himself was molesting his daughter and sending pornographic images of her to Jeffery while posing as her online, investigators said.

Those online chats often included graphic discussions of multiple sex acts, accounts of the teen's molestation by her father, and nude photographs of the girl and seven others who also appeared to be minors, investigators said.

Jeffery sometimes engaged in the communications that led to his prosecution while at church or from a state child support office in Covington, investigators said. According to his plea agreement, Jeffery sent photos of his genitals taken while he was at the child support office.

Senior Judge Ashley Royal of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia sentenced Jeffery on Wednesday to 15 years followed by 10 years of supervised release. Jeffery pleaded guilty to a single count of attempted online enticement of a minor in September, the U.S. attorney said. The charge against Jeffery carries a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence followed by a minimum of five years of supervised release.

Jeffery's attorneys, Jeffrey Foster and Robbie Ballard of Monroe firm Foster Hanks & Ballard, couldn't be reached late Wednesday afternoon.

When he was arrested, Jeffery was an associate probate judge in Walton County, according to his plea agreement. He stepped down shortly after his arrest. Chuck Boring, executive director of the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, which investigates and recommends disciplinary action involving the state's judges, didn't immediately have information on Jeffery or the termination of his tenure as an associate probate judge. Boring took over as the JQC's executive director on Dec. 2.

Jeffery also was a special assistant attorney general assigned to prosecute delinquent child support cases on behalf of the Georgia Department of Human Services child support division in the Alcovy Judicial Circuit, which includes Walton County. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr fired Jeffery shortly after his arrest last year, Carr spokeswoman Katie Byrd said. "We hold our SAAGs to high standards, and he was terminated when this office learned of his arrest," she said. 

The FBI began investigating Jeffery last year on a tip from the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation. A search warrant for Jeffery's Monroe home turned up multiple electronic devices with numerous pornographic videos and images of children, including more than a dozen photos depicting the sexual abuse of infants and toddlers, according to Jeffery's plea.

"I believe this multi-agency investigation ultimately stopped a deviant criminal, posing as a law-abiding judge, from doing additional irreparable damage to innocent children," said U.S. Attorney Charlie Peeler of the Middle District of Georgia.

Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of the FBI's Atlanta office, called the case against Jeffery "particularly disturbing because it is an example that child predators come from all walks of life, even from a position in our justice system. Now, instead of sitting behind a bench judging right from wrong, Jeffery will be sitting on the other side of the bench in a prison cell."