Gila River Man Sentenced to 10 Years

PHOENIX—On March 4, 2014, Aaron Lee Escarsega, 19, of Laveen, Arizona, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Carrto 120 months in prison, followed by a lifetime supervised release. Escarsega pled guilty on December 18, 2013, to abusive sexual contact of a minor.

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, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children through the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Gila River Police Department. The prosecution was handled by Raynette Logan, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix.