Former Athens mayor guilty of child obscenity violations

TYLER – The former mayor of Athens has pleaded guilty to federal child obscenity violations. James Monte Montgomery, 64, pleaded guilty Thursday in Tyler to sending obscene materials to a minor. According to public information, on June 3, 2021, Montgomery was arrested after arriving at an undisclosed location after soliciting sex online with investigators posing as minors. In June of 2020, Montgomery, then the mayor of Athens, began communicating by text messaging with a person he believed to be a 15-year-old female. Montgomery sent messages to the child describing sexually explicit acts that he wanted to perform on the child and offering to pay the child if she would meet him and have sex with him, according to authorities.

Officials say sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.