Crimes against Children 11-14-12

Orlando, FL

A Central Florida man who reportedly told agents he hears voices of girls saying they love him pleaded guilty to a child pornography charge in Orlando federal court.

FBI agents began investigating Michael Vangasbeck when a man told authorities in March that the DeBary man contacted his 10-year-old daughter online and indicated he wanted to show her his genitals.

Agents interviewed Vangasbeck in April, and the 34-year-old admitted to having roughly 1,000 images of child pornography on his desktop computer.

Shelby Twp., MI
A 54-year-old Shelby Township resident has been charged with possession of child pornography.

The Macomb Area Computer Enforcement Team (MACE) received an FBI lead from the Oklahoma City Office - a peer-to-peer file exchange that had several dozen file names consistent with child pornography.

A member of the MACE team following up on the tip discovered that the IP address was registered to a David Perez of Shelby Township.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District Federal Court of Michigan, Perez admitted to using the file sharing program but denied purposefully downloading child pornography. Perez also admitted that he "accidentally" received files containing child pornography.

Washington, DC
A former special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-Miami Office was sentenced today to serve 70 months in prison for transporting child pornography, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Steinbach of the FBI Miami Field Office and Sheriff Al Lamberti of the Broward County, Florida Sheriff’s Office.

Anthony Mangione, 52, of Parkland, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra in West Palm Beach, Florida. In addition to his prison term, Mangione was sentenced to serve 20 years of supervised release.

On July 16, 2012, Mangione pleaded guilty to one count of transportation of child pornography in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida. He was indicted on September 27, 2011, by a grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Boise, ID
Michael James Angus, 68, of Star, Idaho, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Boise to 120 months in prison for possessing sexually explicit images of minors, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Angus to be on supervised release for the remainder of his life and pay restitution to the victim. A hearing to determine the amount of restitution has not yet been set.

According to the plea agreement, deputies from the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, who are members of the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, began an investigation after a 10-year-old female reported that Angus had engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with her while her family was visiting at Angus’ home on October 30, 2011. The parents of the 10-year-old also expressed concern for the welfare of another child, an 8-year-old, who often spent time alone with Angus at his home.

Investigators identified the 8-year-old and contacted her. The girl, whom Angus had cared for off and on for several years, disclosed inappropriate contact by Angus, and told investigators that he had also taken pictures of her dancing, posing nude, and when she was in the bathtub.

Trenton, NJ
Warren County, New Jersey man today admitted possessing child pornography on his computer and an external hard drive, including violent video images, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Leonard Ramirez, 40, of Great Meadows, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court to an indictment charging him with possession of child pornography.

On April 21, 2009, law enforcement agents from the Phillipsburg, New Jersey Police Department interviewed Ramirez at his former girlfriend’s residence in Phillipsburg. They obtained Ramirez’s consent to search his laptop computer and discovered images of child pornography.

Crimes against Children 10-26-12 Part II

Los Angeles, CA
An Inland Empire man pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to making child pornography after he filmed his sexual conduct with a 13-year-old boy who lived near his residence, prosecutors said.
 
Pedro Ruiz, 33, who police say also goes by the name Peter, entered his plea to one count of production of child pornography, which carries a minimum penalty of 15 years in federal prison.

As part of the plea agreement, Ruiz admitted to producing sexually explicit videos and images of a 13-year-old boy, who lived a few houses away, in 2009.

Boston, MA
A Framingham man will serve over 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography and five counts of threatening to injure the reputation of another, according to US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz's office.

Joshua M. Pizette, 23, was sentenced in Boston federal court last week to 65 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, according to the US Attorney's office.

According to the US Attorney's office, Pizette attempted to blackmail a young Massachusetts woman to provide him with nude photographs. Pizette, who knew the young woman and her family, anonymously contacted her by email and threatened to place embarrassing information about her on the Internet if she did not send him nude photos.

Carteret, NJ
He's been an educator in the Carteret school system for 21 years, working as a middle-school history teacher in the 1990s and even creating live American Civil War re-enactments on a field near Carteret Avenue for groups of rapt seventh graders.

More recently, Nicholas G. Sysock has served as a Carteret High School vice principal, a post that paid him $126,204 in 2011, according to public records.

Today, the 53-year-old man sat quietly behind a defense table in a Newark courtroom, his hands cuffed in front of him, his lips clenched, as he faced a charge of possession of child pornography that, upon conviction, would carry a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison. During the morning hours, authorities said, the Rahway resident was picked up by federal agents who rifled through his home searching, warrant in hand, for evidence of child pornography.

Cincinnati, OH
A Cincinnati man has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison on federal child pornography charges.

Martin Nathan Ross, 59, pleaded guilty in July to one count of possession of child pornography and was ordered to spend 148 months in prison and spend the rest of his life under court supervision. 

 

Undercover officers said they made contact with Ross, who went by the name "Olderswohioguy," on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network in September 2011.

They said Ross shared folders that contained images and videos depicting children between the ages of 4 and 13, some of them bound, being raped or sodomized by adult men.

Boise, ID

Boise detectives helped bust an Illinois man who recently pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, police announced Tuesday.

Andrew Gerald Millas, 43, faces 15 to 30 years in prison when he's sentenced in U.S. District Court in Illinois Jan. 14.

Millas was arrested after Detectives Jason Pietzak and Timothy Brady of the Boise Police Department received child pornography from Millas over the Internet while conducting an undercover investigation on suspected illegal porn websites beginning in December 2011.

Millas described sexual contact with children in online chats with the detectives and broadcasted a live sex act with a minor to them via a web camera. They contacted police in Illinois, who searched the home and arrested Millas.

Rochester, NY
A Rochester man was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for possessing child pornography.
Robert Vogler, 31, was also sentenced to 20 years of post-release supervision by U. S. District Court Judge David G. Larimer.



The conviction came from an execution of a search warrant at a residence Vogler shared with co-defendant, Donald MacIntyre, by the FBI’s Cyber Task Force, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller who handled the case. Law enforcement agents found stills and videos of child pornography on several devices that Vogler admitted to downloading using a peer-to-peer file sharing program.

St. Charles, IL

A four-month police investigation involving child pornography ended with the arrest of a 51-year-old St. Charles man Monday, according to police.

Gary L. Harris, of 1809 Howard St., was charged with four counts of aggravated child pornography and possession of marijuana and cocaine with intent to manufacture or deliver, police said.
 Union City, NJ
A Union City woman studying to be a Hudson County corrections officer has been arrested on charges she allowed her young daughters to live in a home where her 75-year-old father allegedly had child pornography hanging on the walls “throughout the apartment,” authorities said.

The woman, 31, of Palisade Avenue near 48th Street, is charged with two counts of child abuse for allowing her children, 6 and 8, to reside in her father’s apartment, where numerous photos of nude and partially nude females were on display, the criminal complaint says.

She is also charged with allowing her children to live in an apartment that was “in disrepair and unsanitary for a child to reside,” the complaint says. Finally, she is charged with two counts of neglect, the complaint says.

Falmouth, MA
A Falmouth man has been charged with the possession and distribution of child pornography.

Police said Peter Canavin, 38, was taken into custody on Wednesday after authorities executed a search warrant at his Falmouth home. Among the several items seized from Canavin’s home were computers containing child pornography, police said.

Berry, KY

A Harrison County man was arrested on child pornography charges after a two-year investigation.

Allen L. Moredock, 26, was charged with 20 counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, state police said Wednesday in a news release.

An Internet Crimes Against Children investigation started when Moredock began chatting with a person online who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, the news release said. The "girl" was an undercover detective in Florida.

The news release said Moredock sent the detective child pornography and talked about having sexual contact with a child.

College Station, TX
A man who has worked with at-risk children for years is now behind bars, facing four counts of child pornography possession.

 John Mason, 53, was employed with Montgomery County Youth Services. Police said the charges against him are alarming, and investigators are looking into what type of contact he had with kids.

Mason’s arrest comes after a two-year long national investigation conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

On Thursday, authorities asked Conroe police to get involved. Investigators raided Mason’s second-story unit at the Treehouse Apartments on Wilson Road.

Police said evidence was taken from the apartment, but they would not elaborate on exactly what investigators found.

Denham Spring, LA
A man, who was on probation, was arrested Wednesday on 100 counts of child pornography charges.

Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell announced that Marvin Thorton, 49, was arrested in a joint investigation with his office and local authorities.

Thorton's bond was set at $10 million on 100 counts of possessing pornography involving juveniles.

Crimes against Children 10-24-12

Cincinnati, OH
Martin Nathan Ross, 59, of Cincinnati was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 148 months in prison for possessing child pornography. Ross’s sentence was enhanced because he has been previously convicted of sex offenses involving minors. He was also sentenced to be under court supervision for the rest of his life.

In September 2011, an officer working in an undercover capacity was investigating activities on a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing network. During the investigation, the officer made contact with an individual using the screen name “Olderswohioguy” later identified as Ross. Ross offered to share folders with the undercover officer, which he did. Because these folders were password-protected, Ross had to provide the undercover officer with the password so he could gain access. One folder included numerous images and videos depicting child pornography. The videos in particular depicted children less than 12 years of age involved in various sexual acts.

Washington, DC
Patrick Henderson, 38, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty today to arranging for a sexual contact with someone he believed to be a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr.; James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

According to the government’s evidence, on November 21, 2011, Henderson contacted an undercover officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force who had entered a social networking site. Over the next several days, Henderson engaged in online and telephone conversations with the undercover officer, whom he believed had access to an under-aged boy from Virginia. During this period of time, Henderson arranged with the undercover officer to meet for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with the boy.

Riverside, CA
A San Bernardino man pleaded guilty today in federal court to production of child pornography for filming his sexual conduct with a 13-year-old boy who lived near his residence.

Pedro Ruiz, who also used the name Peter Ruiz, 33, pleaded guilty this morning to one count of production of child pornography, a charge that carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in federal prison and could result in a sentence of as much as 30 years in federal prison.

In a plea agreement filed in United States District Court, Ruiz admits that in 2009, he produced sexually explicit videos and images of the 13-year-old victim, who lived only a few houses away from Ruiz. When federal authorities searched Ruiz’s residence in 2010, they found on his computer thousands of videos and images depicting what defendant knew was child pornography.

Rochester, NY
U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Robert Vogler, 31, of Rochester, New York, who was convicted of possession of child pornography, was sentenced to 36 months in prison and 20 years’ supervised release by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa J. Miller, who handled the case, stated that during the execution of a search warrant by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Task Force, at a residence Vogler shared with co-defendant Donald MacIntyre, law enforcement officers found devices containing child pornography. Vogler admitted to downloading images and videos of child pornography using a peer to peer file sharing program.

Philadelphia, PA
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 34-year-old Long Pond resident was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik to serve five years in prison for receiving child pornography.

According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, the defendant, Jonathan Brownlee, previously pleaded guilty to using a computer to download images of child pornography. The offense occurred during April through December 2009.

Brownlee was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2010 as a result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, Delaware County Detectives, and Pocono Mountain Regional Police.

Omaha, NE
United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that United States District Court Judge Joseph F. Bataillon sentenced Charles Phillips, Jr., age 43, of Macy, Nebraska, for his conviction for assault on a child resulting in substantial bodily injuries. Phillips was sentenced to 18 months’ incarceration, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Phillips was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,193.35.

On April 2, 2011, Phillips got into an argument with his girlfriend. The girlfriend’s 13-year-old girl yelled at Phillips to leave her mother alone. Phillips cursed at the girl and then went over and stomped on her head. The girl was briefly knocked unconscious, and her nose was broken. In addition, the girl suffered from headaches for several days after the assault.

Crimes against Children 10-8-12

Houston, TX
Edward Jorodge Gladney, 28, of Houston, has been sentenced to serve a total of 720 months in prison following his convictions for producing and advertising child pornography, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Kenneth Magidson announced today. The sentence represents one of the largest in the Southern District of Texas for offenses related to child pornography in recent years.

Gladney was charged with producing child pornography as far back as 2002, as well as advertising those images for sale via the Internet. He pleaded guilty March 5, 2012.

Today, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore handed Gladney the significant prison term after considering all the evidence against him, reports from mental health experts and statements of the victims, as well as the number of years he continually abused his victims. Judge Gilmore sentenced Gladney to 360 months on each of two production of child pornography convictions to run consecutively and 360 months on the remaining two production and one advertising convictions to run concurrent to each other and to the first two production counts for a total of 720 months in federal prison.

Houston, TX
Roberto Amador has been sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for possessing child pornography, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. Amador, 25, of Houston, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography on January 17, 2012.

Amador will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.

Amador acknowledged in the plea agreement that he possessed more than 800 images and 20 videos on June 7, 2011. These images contained children under the age of 12 engaged in sexual acts with adults, among other things.

The charges against Amador are the result of an investigation conducted by members of the Houston FBI-Innocent Images Task Force, which focuses its attention on investigating offenses involving the exploitation of children via the Internet.

Honolulu, HI
Vida G. Bottom, Special Agent in Charge of the Honolulu Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is seeking the public’s help in providing information that may identify an unknown male suspected of child sexual exploitation, possibly on Hawaii’s Big Island. A photograph and informational poster depicting the suspect are being disseminated to the public.

The suspect first came to the FBI’s attention in 2010 when a series of photographs surfaced on the Internet depicting the suspect apparently engaging in graphic sex acts with two children: a 4-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy (approximate ages). These photos were circulated widely among various illegal Internet forums for the sharing of child pornography.

Philadelphia, PA
Peter Zagorski, 31, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to eight years and three months in prison for distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. announced.

According to a factual proffer of evidence presented during the plea proceeding, on October 24, 2011, an MPD member of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force who was operating undercover as part of the investigation communicated with Zagorski by instant messenger. During the course of the communications, Zagorski expressed interest in meeting an under-aged girl and engaging in sexual contact with the child. Also during the course of the communications, Zagorski sent the undercover six videos of child pornography.

Newark, NJ
A Morris County, New Jersey man was sentenced today to 61 months in federal prison for distribution of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Charles Dolick, 69, of Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patty Schwartz to an information charging him with distribution of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Faith S. Hochberg imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On or about September 23, 2010, Dolick knowingly distributed more than 600 images of child pornography through a peer-to-peer file network. The images and videos Dolick distributed included multiple depictions of prepubescent children engaging in sexually explicit conduct with other children and adults.

Dolick admitted that he had been collecting child pornography for approximately 17 years and that he distributed child pornography via peer-to-peer software.

Albuquerque, NM
On October 5, 2012, Nathan R. Platero, 41, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Tohajiilee, New Mexico, pled guilty to an information charging him with abusive sexual contact under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales said that, at sentencing, Platero faces up to 10 years of imprisonment, to be followed by a term of supervised release and to be determined by the court. Platero also will be required to register as a sex offender. Platero, who was arrested on January 3, 2012, remains in custody pending his sentencing hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.