Crimes against Children 9-11-12

Jacksonville, FL
United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announced today that Charles Lee Gorish (66, St. Augustine) has been charged by a federal criminal complaint with transporting child pornography from Florida to Canada. If convicted, Gorish faces at least 15 years and up to 40 years in federal prison. He was arrested at his St. Augustine residence on September 7, 2012.

According to the criminal complaint, Gorish sent a package via Federal Express to an individual in Ontario, Canada. The package contained, among other things, two micro SD media cards with numerous images of child pornography. It was intercepted by Canadian law enforcement officers. Canadian officials notified the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office (SJCSO), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations regarding the seizure of this package.

Further investigation revealed that Gorish is a registered sex offender. According to court records, he was convicted on February 24, 1992, in Hillsborough County, Florida, for lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 16 years of age. On September 7, 2012, FBI agents and SJCSO personnel executed a federal search warrant at Gorish’s residence. During an interview, Gorish admitted, among other things, that he acquired the files on the SD cards, depicting sexually explicit images of boys, from the Internet over a period of years. He was subsequently arrested.

Concord, NH
John Allen Wright, 46, of Milton, appeared in United States District Court today and pled guilty to six counts of sexual exploitation of children in violation of federal law, announced United States Attorney John P. Kacavas.

In February, 2011, a member of New Hampshire’s Internet Crimes Against Children (NH ICAC) Task Force initiated an undercover investigation to locate and identify individuals possessing and trading images of child pornography through file sharing networks. Information obtained as a result of the investigation led to the issuance of a search warrant for Wright’s residence in Milton, New Hampshire. In the course of the search, computers and peripherals were seized and forensic examination revealed several videos depicting Wright sexually assaulting minor children who were passengers aboard his school bus. The initial search also revealed thousands of child sexual assault images that had been downloaded from the Internet. A subsequent federal search warrant yielded further evidence linking Wright to the production of the videos.

Chicago, IL
Three defendants have been arrested in Iowa and Ohio on federal charges filed in Chicago for allegedly engaging in sex trafficking of three minor girls they transported earlier this year from Iowa City to Chicago for prostitution, federal law enforcement officials announced today. The defendants were each charged with one count of conspiracy to transport minors across state lines to engage in prostitution in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The charges allege that the defendants knew that coercion, force, and the threat of force would be used to cause the victims to engage in commercial sex acts.

Defendant Malik McKee, 19, and his sister, Shuntina McKee, 23, both of Iowa City and formerly of suburban Country Club Hills, Illinois, were arrested yesterday in Iowa City. The third defendant, Willie Woods, 41, of Toledo, Ohio, and formerly of Iowa City, was arrested Friday in Toledo. The government is seeking to have all three defendants transferred to Chicago in custody to face the charges here.