LUBBOCK, Texas — Former Lubbock dentist Jason White was sentenced to 360 months (30 years) in federal prison Thursday morning. The well-known dentist was indicted in early 2021 for production of child pornography, enticement of a minor along with receipt and distribution of child pornography.
In September, White accepted a plea deal for production of child pornography. It called for a sentence of not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years. The deal also called for White to forfeit his home in the 4400 block of 10th Street and a 996-acre ranch in Garza County.
A more recent court document indicated White will forfeit $100,000 in cash instead of forfeiting the home.
Among other things, federal officials accused White of making videos as he sexually abused underage boys. Court records said White used, “the ruse of having a pornography business to entice, and attempt to entice, children into sexual activity and sexually explicit conduct.”
One of the documents filed with White’s plea agreement indicated 15 persons referred to as John Doe. The pattern of sexual abuse, according to the court records, went all the way back to 1998 when White was 19 years old. Federal prosecutors listed off instances of sexual abuse over the years.
White’s attorney said he believes the West Texas community is a forgiving one.
“We’re a faith-based community,” he said. “And I think at this point as we move forward, you want forgiveness and healing for all involved.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas released a statement after the sentencing:
A Lubbock dentist was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for producing images of child sexual abuse, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad E. Meacham and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Jason Paul White, 42, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to production of child pornography. He was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who also ordered him to pay more than $58,000 in restitution.
According to court documents, in 2009, Mr. White (then 29) persuaded a 17-year-old boy to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a video. He went on to produce child pornography videos of the same child on approximately six other occasions.
As part of his guilty plea, White also admitted to enticing six other minor boys to engage in sexual activity between 2004 (when White was 25) and 2020 (when White was 41). The boys ranged in age from 13 to 17 years old at the time White committed crimes against them.
At Thursday’s hearing, multiple victims testified that White groomed them, plying them with gifts and drugs to make them feel special. The defendant’s perpetual manipulation left victims with shame and trust issues, they said.
The FBI’s Dallas Field Office – Lubbock Resident Agency, the Lubbock Police Department, and Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from the Department of Justice’s High Technology Investigative Unit. Trial Attorney Austin M. Berry of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Callie Woolam of the Northern District of Texas prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.