MIAMI – A now-disbarred South Florida attorney — who once served as a prosecutor — is set to spend more than a decade in federal prison after pleading guilty to producing child sexual abuse material, prosecutors announced on Monday.
A federal judge sentenced William Power McCaughan Jr. to 190 months in prison on Aug. 28.
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McCaughan, 42, of Key Biscayne, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child sexual abuse material in May.
Court documents state that the investigation into McCaughan began in January 2023 after authorities caught a Texas man sharing an explicit video of his 11-year-old niece with an undercover FBI employee using the messaging app Kik.
Authorities found that he also shared that video with McCaughan, who asked the man to produce other videos of the girl.
The documents state that undercover agents then turned their attention to the South Florida lawyer and began chatting with him.
Their chats detailed McCaughan’s desire to obtain child sexual abuse material showing victims aged “8 and up,” authorities said.
Court documents state that at one point, McCaughan expressed “frustration” that “sex was treated as ‘private and taboo and off limits to kids.’”
Authorities, in a news release, said he also “chatted with at least two minor victims regarding sexual acts.”
He asked one victim for sexually explicit images, even telling him “how to position himself and what parts of his adolescent body to capture in the image,” prosecutors said.
Authorities said they were able to trace the account to McCaughan and raided his Key Biscayne apartment on July 28, 2023, seizing his electronics in the process. They said they also found cocaine in his nightstand and vehicle.
According to his Florida Bar profile, McCaughan was admitted to practice law in Florida in 2007 and he worked for a law firm in Coral Gables prior to his arrest; his license was revoked last December.
His LinkedIn profile states that he worked as a prosecutor in Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit, which covers southwest Florida, from 2007 to 2009, soon after graduating Georgetown University’s law school.
Authorities said a restitution hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19.