News Releases and Statements

Timothy Howell, 49, Mountrail County, North Dakota, was sentenced to serve 151 months in prison on one count of possession of materials involving the sexual exploiting minors.

Shannon Buck, 43, from Irving, Texas, admitted that he used Jane Doe to engage in sexually explicit conduct, and then used his camera to record that conduct.

Daniel Benson Billman Jr., 43, of Aransas Pass, was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack to 600 months in federal prison. Billman was further ordered to serve the rest of his life on supervised release, during which time he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the Internet.

According to court documents, Thomas E. Lafontaine, 35, responded to a personal ad placed by an HSI special agent in late 2014, who was posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Yusef Yunosovich Abramov, 58, was convicted by a jury in November 2015 of five felony counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. According to evidence introduced during the trial, the dual Russian-U.S. citizen flew from Los Angeles to Russia in June 2009 and, shortly after arriving, raped a 12-year-old girl.

Marcos Antonio Rodriguez-Mejia, aka, Brady Rodriguez-Cruz, 33, of Irving, Texas, was sentenced to 293 months in federal prison on one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children, and also sentenced to 120 months for one count of possessing counterfeit documents. Both sentences are to be served concurrently.

Jesus Hernandez-Ramos, 33, was sentenced March 11 by Senior U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack to 86 months in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised release.

Robert Wayne Collins, 63, of Kingsville, Texas, was sentenced March 10 to 84 months in prison. Collins was further ordered to pay a $17,500 fine, five years of supervised release, and compliance with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the Internet.

On June, 16, the Manassas City Police Department arrested David Alexander Battle II, 24, after law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence and discovered evidence of child pornography, including two gigabytes of videos that appeared to be child pornography involving infants.

Josue Osorio-Canales, 30, from Irving, Texas, pleaded guilty in July 2015 to one count of transporting child pornography.

Ronald Gerard Boyajian, 55, who resided in Menlo Park and previously spent time on the Palos Verdes peninsula, was found guilty following a six-week trial of three child exploitation crimes.

John James Denicola, 55, of Suwanee, Georgia, was charged in a federal complaint with one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and one count of attempted coercion and enticement.

David Aaron Diaz, 35, was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised release after he completes his prison term.

Raul Casarez, 35, from Weslaco, Texas, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, which will be immediately followed by five years of supervised release. The court also ordered a total of $9,500 in restitution for all of the identified victims in this case.

Charles Richard Burks, 67, of Mansfield, Texas, has been in custody since his arrest in July 2015 on a related federal criminal complaint, following the execution of a search warrant at his residence.

In addition to the prison term, Joseph D. Maurizio Jr., 70, of Central City, Pennsylvania was also ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and $10,000 in restitution to each of the two minor victims.

Alejandro Castillo, Jr., 36, of Chula Vista, was arrested on a federal child pornography charge in April 2015 by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Castillo pleaded guilty to receipt of child pornography in September 2015.

Jorge Betancourt, 37, of Robstown, Texas, pleaded guilty to the charges March 1. Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head set sentencing for May 25. At that time, Betancourt faces a minimum of five and up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

Tanya Figueroa-Pagan, 33, of Toa Baja, was arrested by HSI agents after a referral from Puerto Rico Police Department’s (PRPD) Sexual Crimes Division in Arecibo led to an HSI investigation that revealed she held sexually explicit conversations with a 13-year-old male minor and proposed taking him to a hotel to engage in criminal sexual conduct.

Adam C. Cobb, 47, of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of child pornography. Cobb was arrested in April 2015.

Matthew Harbin, 30, of Brownsville, Texas, was sentenced Feb. 23 by Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head to serve 300 months for the Corpus Christi charges and another 120 months for a similar case in the Northern District of Alabama; these sentences will be served consecutively for a total of 420 months in federal prison, and will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

Paul Charles Wilkins, 70, of Littleport in East Cambridgeshire, England, who had dual United States-United Kingdom citizenship, is charged with one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and one count of attempted sex trafficking of children.

Jason D. Boudreau, 41, of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was arraigned Monday on federal indictment charging him with 33 counts of allegedly accessing child pornography online. A federal grand jury returned the indictment on February 16, 2016.

Evert Henry, 41, of Lebanon, Missouri, was charged in an indictment returned Feb. 22 by a federal grand jury in Springfield.