U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Maryland

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Boonesboro Man Pleads Guilty to Coercion and Enticement of a Minor to Produce Child Pornography

Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conversations with a 14-year-old Girl on Social Media

Greenbelt, Maryland - James Maynard, Jr., age 53, of Boonesboro, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to a federal charge for coercion and enticement of a minor in order to produce and distribute child pornography.

The guilty plea was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Chief Jason Lando of the Frederick Police Department.

According to Maynard’s guilty plea, on November 27, 2019, Maynard used a social media account to meet a 14-year-old female, Victim 1, During his initial conversation with the victim over social media, the victim informed Maynard that she was 14 years old and he identified himself as a 52-year-old man. While they did not begin that way, Maynard’s conversations with the victim became increasingly sexual. On the second day of their online communications, November 28, 2019, Maynard asked Victim 1 to send him nude photographs of herself. Victim 1 subsequently took the photos that Maynard requested, using her tablet computer to take the photo while she was in her bedroom. Victim 1 sent the photos to Maynard via her social media account. Maynard made numerous sexually explicit comments about Victim 1’s genitals, and what he wanted to do to her. Maynard persuaded Victim 1 to take and send him more photos. Maynard also sent images of his penis to Victim 1.

After Victim 1 sent Maynard the photographs, she began to feel upset about the social media communications with Maynard. She tried to delete the images of herself, and she asked a trusted adult for help. Around this same time, Frederick County detectives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation initiated an investigation and forensically analyzed the tablet computer and social media records. Investigators discovered additional evidence that Maynard was using the internet to exploit Victim 1.

On December 5, 2019, a search warrant was executed at Maynard’s residence and his cell phone was seized. A forensic analysis of the phone revealed several images relevant to the investigation, including an image of Victim 1. Forensic analysis of another computer located in Maynard’s residence revealed that Maynard used the internet to search topics involving minors and sex, such as: “daddy and daughter sex;” “kids having sex;” and “little girl nude.”

Investigators interviewed Maynard. Maynard initially claimed that he thought Victim 1 was 19-years-old. However, when investigators showed Maynard the content of his online messages with Victim 1, Maynard admitted that he knew the victim was 14-years-old at the time that he communicated with her on social media.

As part of his plea agreement, upon his release from prison, Maynard will be required to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Maynard faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison followed by up to lifetime of supervised release for coercion and enticement of a minor. U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher has not scheduled a sentencing date for Maynard.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the FBI and the Frederick Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Duey and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce King, Chief Counsel with the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office, who prosecuted the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

U.S. Attorney’s Office

District of Connecticut

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Monroe Man Charged with Child Exploitation Offenses Related to His Alleged Sexual Abuse of Three Girls

Leonard C Boyle, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that HECTOR TORRES, 32, of Monroe, was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint charging him with child exploitation offenses related to his alleged sexual abuse of three minor girls.

Following his arrest, Torres appeared via videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Dave Vatti and is detained.

As alleged in the criminal complaint, Torres used Snapchat, FaceTime and text messaging to communicate with three minor girls, ages 11 and 12, to persuade, induce, entice or coerce them to send him naked pictures of themselves and to engage in sexual activity with him. On multiple occasions in February 2021, Torres picked up the girls in his car and brought them to a shopping plaza parking lot in Hartford, where they each engaged in sexual activity with Torres at his direction. Torres promised to give the girls money, sneakers, vaping supplies and/or food if they sent him photos of their bodies and/or engaged in sex acts with him. In March 2021, investigators reviewed at least three videos of Torres’s sexual abuse of the girls, one of which shows the right side of his face as well as distinctive tattoos on his hands.

The complaint charges Torres with coercion and enticement of minors to engage in sexual activity, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of life, and with production of child pornography, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years.

Acting U.S. Attorney Boyle stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Acting U.S. Attorney Boyle noted that investigators are seeking to identify additional victims and encouraged victims, witnesses and anyone with helpful information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).

This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hartford Police Department, the Monroe Police Department and the Connecticut Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Angel M. Krull through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.

For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Western District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Jamestown Man Charged With Sex Trafficking Crimes

BUFFALO, N.Y.- U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Anthony Burris, 30, of Jamestown, NY, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with sex trafficking and enticing travel to engage in sexual activity. The charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison, a maximum of life and a $250,000 fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura A. Higgins, who is handling the case, stated that according to the criminal complaint, on January 21, 2021, a mother contacted the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office and reported the possible sex trafficking of her daughter (Victim 1). The mother reported that her daughter was involved in drug use and prostitution and had to perform sexual acts with others in exchange for drugs and other items from the defendant. In addition, the mother stated Burris was physically abusing her daughter. The mother provided Victim 1’s Facebook profile, which an investigator reviewed and recognized Victim 1 from ads he previously saw on a website used to post advertisements for commercial sex acts or other illicit business like the sale of controlled substances.

On February 28, 2021, Victim’s 1’s mother told investigators that she learned her daughter was assaulted by the defendant and was at a medical clinic in Erie, Pennsylvania seeking medical treatment for her injuries, which included significant bruising and swelling to her left eye and a laceration above her left eye. Victim 1’s mother stated that Victim 1 was assaulted because she was going to try and leave Burris. A law enforcement officer in Pennsylvania went to the medical clinic to speak with Victim 1 who was uncooperative, stating that she sustained her injuries from falling and refused any help. While in the parking lot of the medical clinic, the officer observed the defendant in a vehicle.

On March 3, 2021, an undercover law enforcement officer contacted Victim 1 and set up a “car date.” Investigators set up surveillance in the vicinity of the agreed upon meeting location and observed Burris driving a vehicle in the area. Investigators approached the vehicle and the defendant was identified as the driver and Victim 1 was identified as the front passenger. During a search of the vehicle, a bag full of condoms and lubricants, suspected controlled substances including a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, and marijuana, three cellphones, and $2,216 in cash were seized. After the search was completed, Burris was released and given an appearance ticket for Permitting Prostitution.

Subsequent investigation identified a second victim (Victim 2), who also suffered from drug addiction. On March 11, 2021, an undercover officer set up an appointment with Victim 2 using a contact number from an online ad. Once again investigators set up surveillance in the vicinity of the agreed upon meeting location, and once again Burris was observed in a vehicle in the area with a female passenger. Investigators approached the vehicle and arrested the defendant. Observed in plain view on the floor near the driver’s seat was a clear plastic baggie containing a white powdery substance suspected to be heroin. Additionally, two cellular phones were seized from the vehicle.

According to the complaint, Burris rarely gave Victim 1 and Victim 2 any of the money obtained through sex trafficking activities. The defendant would provide the victims with heroin. However, he would withhold drugs until they did what he wanted them to do, calling it “starving.”

A preliminary review of cell phones recovered from Victim 2 contained voluminous daily contact with sex buyers discussing details of sex acts, pricing, meeting locations, and times. Both phones also contained photographs of Victim 1 and Victim 2.

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Central District of Illinois

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Decatur Man Sentenced to 45 Years in Prison for "Sextorting" Minors in Eight States

URBANA, Ill. – A Decatur, Ill., man, Cornell D.A. Johnson, 24, of the 1100 block of East Division St., was sentenced today to 45 years in prison for producing child pornography involving multiple minors. Upon imposing sentence, Senior U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm described Johnson as a “ringmaster,” who engaged in an “exercise of power,” to prey on victims of a vulnerable age for his pleasure and satisfaction.

According to admissions made in connection with his guilty pleas, entered on Feb. 19, 2020, Johnson controlled multiple female-presenting profiles on Facebook, which he used to contact female Facebook users. He then enticed the minors to send him photographs that progressed from various stages of undress to sexually suggestive and/or sexually explicit photographs of themselves.

Once Johnson obtained compromising images, he threatened to injure the minor victims’ reputations and embarrass them by posting their nude pictures online if they failed to comply with his demands for additional images. Among his demands, Johnson specifically directed the minor teenagers to sexually abuse younger children in their household to produce images.

At the time of his arrest, in February 2019, Johnson was identified in more than 80 Cybertips Facebook reported from across the U.S. and Canada to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force affiliate agencies identified 17 minor victims located in nine judicial districts across eight states. The victims ranged in age from 4 to 17 years old.

Johnson has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his arrest. He was ordered to remain on supervised release for life upon completion of his prison sentence.

The charges are the result of an investigation by the Decatur Police Department; the Illinois Attorney General’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force; and, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations. Vital assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorneys’ offices for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, the Western District of Pennsylvania, the District of Arizona, the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and the Western District of Wisconsin. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elly M. Peirson prosecuted the case on behalf of the government.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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