Man Faces Up to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Sending Obscene Material to a Lubbock Police Officer Posing Online as a 13-Year-Old Female in an Undercover Operation
LUBBOCK, TX—A 52-year-old League City, Texas, man appeared in federal court in Lubbock, Texas, this morning and pleaded guilty to a federal child obscenity offense, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
Nilanjan Brahma pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to one count of attempted transfer of obscene materials to a minor. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. Judge Cummings ordered a presentence investigation report with a sentencing date to be set after the completion of that report. Brahma remains on bond.
According to plea documents filed in the case, from approximately April 25, 2011, through February 19, 2012, Brahma engaged in a series of communications, via messaging, texting,, and telephone, with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old female, “Jane Doe,” who represented that she lived in Lubbock, Texas. In fact, Jane Doe was an undercover officer with the Lubbock Police Department.
On April 25, 2011, Brahma chatted with Jane Doe and sent her nine photographs. Five of those photographs depict an adult male engaged in sexually explicit conduct and are considered obscene.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”
The Lubbock Police Department, the FBI, and the League City Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy is prosecuting.
