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Press Release

Rochester Level III Sex Offender Pleads Guilty To Enticing, Threatening Minor

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of New York

CONTACT:       Barbara Burns 
PHONE:         (716) 843-5817
FAX:            (716) 551-3051           

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Johnnie Jones, 32, of Rochester, NY, pleaded guilty to online enticement of a minor before U.S. District Court Judge Charles J. Siragusa. The charge carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum penalty of life in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Gestring, who is handling the case, stated that Jones, a Level III Sex Offender, met and communicated with a minor by mobile telephone using several texting applications. The defendant repeatedly sent the child sexually explicit messages over a period of several weeks and attempted to entice the child into having sex with him. Jones’s enticement efforts ultimately led to an in person meeting with the child during which the defendant statutorily raped the child.

The defendant, until his arrest, lived directly across the street from the George Mather Forbes Elementary School. Jones would have sex with the minor child inside his home. During the course of the investigation, law enforcement also learned that the defendant made threats to kill the child and family members if the child did not delete incriminating phone messages and images or if the minor reported his actions.

The case was initially investigated by Officers and Investigators from the Rochester Police Department who in turn, contacted the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force for assistance. FBI Agents and Task Force Officers arrested Jones without incident in September and he remains in federal custody pending sentencing.

The plea is the culmination of an investigation on the part of Officers of the Rochester Police Department, under the direction of Chief Michael Ciminelli and Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Child Exploitation Task Force.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 24, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. before Judge Siragusa.

Updated November 26, 2014