The father of a transgender athlete has been sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for distributing child pornography. Marc Jacques, the father of Maelle Jacques, cited his son’s transgender identity and his own advocacy for transgender rights in his letter to the court requesting a non-custodial sentence.
Jacques, a former employee of Dartmouth College, first came to the attention of authorities in February of 2022, when federal child exploitation authorities began investigating a number of reports made through CyberTip – the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children. The reports were made by Kik Messenger, a freeware messaging platform notorious for its use in facilitating in child sexual abuse.
Kik reported that between November 24, 2021 and December 6, 2021, a Kik user with the username “wayne9985” uploaded 49 files to other Kik users via private chat messages that appeared to depict child sexual abuse material. The account was quickly traced back to Jacques using IP addresses associated with the image uploads. Further investigation revealed that Jacques’ residential IP address in Newbury, New Hampshire, was reported in more than 40 previous CyberTips reported by Reddit, Google, Tumblr, and SendVid between 2018 and 2022.
A search warrant was obtained for Jacques’ home, and, when officers arrived, Jacques admitted to the crime and voluntarily surrendered his electronic devices.
On his laptop, Jacques was found to have stored 162 files containing child pornography, with an additional 60 files on his iPhone, and 6 files on his desktop computer. In one of the videos described by prosecutors, a female child was seen being orally raped.
Because he has two sons he has full custody of, Jacques was not remanded to custody and was instead released with conditions to self-report back to court for his hearings. On February 26, 2024, Jacques pleaded guilty to knowingly distributing child pornography, and waived his right to have his case heard before a grand jury.
Jacques’ fatherhood and children became a central point during sentencing, and both of his sons penned letters to the court requesting their father receive probation in lieu of a prison sentence.
Maelle Jacques, 16, is a trans-identified boy who has become a controversial athlete at Kearsarge Regional High School for advocating for the elimination of female-only sports. In April, Maelle testified at the New Hampshire state legislature in opposition to a bill seeking to prohibit males from self-identifying into women’s sports.
in his letter to the court, Maelle characterized his father as showing “sheer determination to improve from mistakes he’s made in the past,” and argued that his father should not be sent to prison because it would compromise his own ability to advocate for trans rights.
“The work I have begun to do with the ACLU in regard to my existence as a trans girl in sports is also reliant upon his moral support in my testifying and meeting with Senators,” Maelle wrote. “A prison sentence would also harm me and my brother’s future as we would stop receiving support for college payments without his salary.”
Jacques’ other child, Remi, similarly argued that his father should not be sent to prison, and highlighted his father’s support for LGBTQ issues. He also noted that their biological mother was not supportive of Maelle’s desire to participate in women’s sports, and that his father was a better caregiver as a result.
Another character reference was provided by Dr. Elizabeth Counselman-Carpenter, a professor of social work at Adelphi University, who, like Maelle and Remi, pointed out that Jacques was a “committed member of his community and LGBTQIA+ activist” in her argument against a custodial sentence.
Jacques also wrote a lengthy letter to the court in his own defense, noting the work he had been doing with the ACLU and GLAAD to support Maelle’s fight to be allowed to continue participating in girls’ sport.
Significantly, his letter inadvertantly reveals that he would have been actively attending meetings with politicians and political organizations with his son even after pleading guilty to distributing child pornography.
Jacques went on to suggest that Maelle may commit suicide if he was not allowed to remain free from a custodial sentence arrangement, and notes that Maelle’s mother does not support his son’s gender identity in the same way that he does.
“Transgendered teens have the highest rate of suicide in the United States, and I am afraid for Maelle and her path if she is forced to live with her mother and her stepmother in a home where she is not supported and feels unwelcome,” Jacques wrote.
Reduxx located a social media profile belonging to Jacques showing he was an ardent supporter of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, being originally from Quebec, Canada. In 2021, Jacques shared a CBC article on a transgender olympian, captioning it: “Maelle, you can achieve your dreams. I love you.”
On September 9, Jacques was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison. He is being allowed to remain free until December 2, at which point he is expected to surrender himself to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.