Navajo Man from Breadsprings, N.M., Sentenced to 15 Years for Federal Child Sexual Abuse Conviction

ALBUQUERQUE – Brian Lee, 31, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Breadsprings, N.M., was sentenced today in federal court in Albuquerque, N.M., to 15 years in prison for his conviction on child sexual abuse charges.  Lee will be on supervised release for ten years after completing his prison sentence.  He also will be required to register as a sex offender.

Lee was arrested on July 13, 2017, on a two-count indictment charging him with sexually abusing a child under the age of 12 on two separate occasions between July 2012 and July 2016, on the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County, N.M.

On Sept. 18, 2017, Lee pled guilty to a two-count felony information charging him with aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse.  In entering the guilty plea, Lee admitted that between July 2012 and July 2016, he engaged in sexual acts with the victim on two separate and distinct occasions at his home in Breadsprings on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

This case was investigated by the Gallup office of the FBI.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle T. Nayback prosecuted this case 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/.