California Private Investigator Pleads Guilty to Transporting and Possessing Child Pornography

WASHINGTON—A 37-year-old resident of Chino, California, Rafael Giraldo, pled guilty today before the Honorable Ricardo Urbina in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count of Transportation of Child Pornography and one count of Possession of Child Pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy L. Lanier, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

At sentencing, which is scheduled for September 10, 2009, Giraldo, a private investigator in California, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison, and a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000. Under sentencing guidelines, he faces a likely range of 168 to 210 months in prison.

According to a proffer of evidence presented during today’s court proceeding, on August 31, 2007, a member of the FBI/MPD Child Exploitation Task Force, who was operating undercover and posing as a pedophile, entered a chat room known as a favorite of adult men who have a sexual preference for children. The undercover officer posted a message asking if anyone had access to a child. Within minutes, the defendant responded, “not in the U.S.” The defendant and the undercover began having a conversation about children.

Over the course of the chat, the defendant sent multiple still images and one video of female children under 10 years old having sexual contact with adult males. During the same conversation, the defendant told the undercover officer that he could provide children under the age of 10 for sex in exchange for money. The defendant further stated that he could facilitate a trip involving sex with children with the undercover officer. The defendant provided the undercover with his telephone number. On that same day, the undercover called the defendant on the telephone. During the recorded conversation, the defendant informed the undercover officer that he had traveled to South America for the purpose of having sex with children, the youngest being 10 years old. The defendant further stated that he could arrange for the undercover officer to have sex with children in exchange for money.

On December 14, 2007, the execution of a search warrant for the defendant’s house and his computer revealed that the defendant possessed more than 1000 images of female children under the age of 10 years old having sexual contact with adult males.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood and the Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

In announcing today’s guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Taylor, MPD Chief Lanier, and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini commended the outstanding investigative work of D.C. Metropolitan Police Detective Timothy Palchak, Criminal Investigator John Marsh, and the assigned FBI special agents, as well as Paralegal Specialist Taryn McLaughlin and Legal Assistant LaToya Wade. In addition, they commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Catherine Connelly and Julieanne Himelstein and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Duey, who prosecuted the case.

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