Fort Washington Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Producing Child Pornography

GREENBELT, MD—U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Ernesto Cacanindin, age 46, of Fort Washington, Maryland, today to 15 years in prison followed by supervised release for life for producing child pornography.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Cacanindin’s plea agreement, the FBI was notified on May 12, 2010 that pictures containing child pornography were found in Cacanindin’s workspace at a law firm in the District of Columbia where Cacanindin had been terminated from employment. Employees had discovered an envelope containing 20 Polaroid pictures while cleaning out Cacanindin’s desk following his dismissal. Nine of those pictures depicted close up views of a female child’s genitalia, and five pictures showed Cacanindin performing oral sex on the victim. The victim was between 12 and 15 years old at the time the pictures were taken. Cacanindin admitted that he performed and photographed the sexual acts five or six years ago.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States 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. Details about Maryland’s program are available at www.justice.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the FBI for its work in this investigation and commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam K. Ake, who prosecuted the case.