Jicarilla Apache Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Aggravated Child Sexual Abuse Charge

ALBUQUERQUE—Gary Sidney Vicenti, 53, a member and resident of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, pleaded guilty this afternoon to an aggravated sexual abuse charge under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Vicenti will be sentenced to 12 years in prison, followed by a term of supervised release to be determined by the court. Vicenti also will be required to register as a sex offender.

Vicenti’s guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales; Carol K.O. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the Albuquerque Division of the FBI; and Police Chief Kendall P. Vicenti of the Jicarilla Apache Tribal Police Department.

Vicenti was arrested in November 2012 on a criminal complaint alleging that he sexually abused a child under the age of 12 in summer 2011 on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. During today’s hearing, Vicenti entered a guilty plea to a felony information charging him with aggravated sexual abuse and admitted sexually abusing the victim by touching the victim’s genitals. Vicenti also admitted that this criminal offense occurred on June 1, 2011, in the Jicarilla Apache Reservation.

Vicenti was remanded into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after entering his guilty plea. He will remain detained pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

The case was investigated by the Farmington Resident Agency of the FBI and the Jicarilla Apache Tribal Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Presiliano A. Torrez as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s 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 via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.