She lived in a 4,000-square foot, $1.4 million home and drove a bright green Camaro with vanity plates that read "MY SYN," but prosecutors said grandmother Erika Perdue's opulent lifestyle wasn't her darkest vice.
Perdue, who pleaded guilty to charges of trading and shipping child porn last year, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on Monday.
“I lost two granddaughters to this,” Perdue said in court Monday, according to the Dallas Morning News.
According to court records, the 43-year-old Dallas socialite downloaded and traded child pornography every day for 13 years while her successful lawyer husband was at work.
The Dallas Morning News reports that the activity only stopped once federal agents raided her home and arrested her in April 2012, finding more than 4,000 illicit images on her computer.
Following the raid, agents told WFAA that the images were extremely graphic, and included depictions of toddlers being raped by men and women.
The judge who issued the sentence said he was reluctant to reduce it from 20 years, but prosecutors said they'd agreed to it because the convicted woman suffers from “some pretty severe mental health” problems.
In court, defense attorney Deborah Goodall said Perdue was a "longtime user of methamphetamine” who used the drug “on a daily basis," and had used the drug while downloading and trading child porn. Perdue also reportedly tried to take her own life while in custody in 2012.
Once she was apprehended, Perdue cooperated with authorities, handing over her screen name, "Classybitch," which led to two additional child porn convictions, the Dallas News reports.
According to WFAA, Perdue's Facebook page, which appears to have been deactivated, reflected a coquettish persona complete with sultry photos.
Perdue's husband was not named in the criminal complaint against his wife.
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