Guard recruiter admits child sex crime

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A National Guard recruiter who admitted cultivating an online relationship with a person he believed to be a 15-year-old girl faces up to 10 years in federal prison for child sexual exploitation.

Jeffrey Neal Jackson, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Albuquerque to a charge of coercion of a minor

Under a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office a second charge of travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct will be dismissed when Jackson is sentenced.

Jackson was a National Guard recruiter in Lubbock, Texas.

Prosecutors said Jackson admitted he responded to an online personal ad on craigslist.com and began three weeks of increasingly sexual correspondence with the girl who turned out to be an undercover officer with the Curry County Sheriff's Department.

When he traveled from Lubbock to Clovis in October to meet the girl for sex, he was arrested on local charges.  A month later a federal grand jury indicted him on the two federal charges.

In addition to sheriff's detectives, the U.S. Army, FBI and state Regional Computer Forensic Lab participated in the investigation conducted as part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

A sentencing date for Jackson has not been set.