Man Sentenced for Online Solicitation of a Minor

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Dalton E. Wilke, 46, of Conesus, NY, who was convicted of online enticement of a minor, receipt of child pornography, and possession of child pornography, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 25 years of supervised release by U.S. District Court Judge Charles J. Siragusa. Wilke was also ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and forfeit the GMC Sierra Pickup Truck he drove to meet the victim.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig R. Gestring and Marisa J. Miller, who prosecuted the case, stated that the defendant engaged in a series of sexually explicit online chats with a person he believed to be a 15-year-old boy. Over a period of five months, Wilke repeatedly attempted to induce, persuade, and entice the child to meet for the purpose of having sex. A meeting was finally agreed to in August of 2008 at a park in Batavia, New York. In actuality, the child was an undercover Batavia Police Detective conducting an online child exploitation investigation. The defendant arrived at the planned meeting location only to be arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and officers of the Batavia Police Department. Following Wilke’s arrest, FBI agents seized computers from his home in Consesus. An analysis of these computers at the Regional Computer Forensic Lab linked them to the online enticement. A 48-minute video depicting two young boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct was also recovered.

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.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James H. Robertson, and members of the Batavia, New York Police Department, under the direction of Chief Randy Baker.