Pembroke Pines Man Sentenced for Enticing a Minor to Engage in Sex and Possession of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 27, 2012 |
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gilles, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, announce that Benjamin Rand, 21, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, was sentenced today on charges of using a computer to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §2422(b), and possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §2252(a)(4)(B). United States District Judge James I Cohn sentenced Rand to 20 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
On November 1, 2011, Rand pleaded guilty to one count of using a computer to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and one count of possession of child pornography. According to court documents, Rand would befriend underage girls, eventually convincing them to send sexually explicit pictures to his cell phone and then forcing them to do whatever he wanted in exchange for keeping the pictures private. In the case of one 14-year-old victim, Rand forced her to meet with him in his car for sex in exchange for him not posting her naked pictures to the Internet. During the investigation, Pembroke Pines Police Detectives found numerous sexually explicit images of minors on Rand’s cell phone, including images of the 14-year-old and others.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, the Pembroke Pines Police Department, and the Broward Sheriff’s Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey Steinberg and Department of Justice Trial Attorney Anitha Ibrahim of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.