Las Vegas Attorney Indicted For Child Exploitation Offenses Committed In Bakersfield

FRESNO, Calif. — A grand jury in Fresno returned an indictment today against Charles Max Pollock, 43, of Las Vegas, charging him with two counts of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

Pollock is an attorney who is licensed to practice law in Nevada and California. He has been in custody in Clark County, Nevada since September of 2013 on other charges. According to the criminal complaint previously brought against Pollock, he used an alias and posed as a photographer to contact an adult female who had posted an advertisement on Craigslist in Bakersfield seeking a modeling opportunity. The ad noted that her minor son had experience as a model. Pollock traveled from Las Vegas to Bakersfield, rented a hotel room, and took sexually explicit images of the minor. Pollock returned to Las Vegas and continued to communicate with the minor and his mother. Pollock arranged to meet the minor and the minor’s girlfriend at a different hotel in Bakersfield on August 15, 2013. He encouraged the minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for purposes of taking photographs of the minors. Pollock paid the minors for each of the “photo shoots” and encouraged them not to tell anyone about the conduct.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bakersfield Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney David Gappa is prosecuting this case.

If convicted, Pollock faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a lifetime term of supervised release for each of the four counts. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.