Cecil County Drug Dealer Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Production of Child Pornography

Baltimore. Maryland - U.S. District Judge George L. Russell, III today sentenced Luis Rivera, age 34, formerly of Elkton, Maryland, to 20 years in federal prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for production of child pornography.  Judge Russell ordered that the federal sentence be served consecutive to the 12-year state sentence Rivera is currently serving for a state drug conviction.  Judge Russell also ordered that, upon his release from prison, Rivera must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”). 

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Colonel Woodrow W. Jones III, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Cecil County State’s Attorney James Dellmyer.

According to his guilty plea, Rivera was arrested on drug charges in Cecil County, Maryland on January 30, 2018.  At the time of his arrest, Rivera was found in bed with Jane Doe, who was 15 years old.  Rivera denied having a sexual relationship with Jane Doe and further stated that all of the illegal narcotics, later confirmed to be crack cocaine, powder cocaine, and heroin, located in his bedroom belonged to Jane Doe.

While at the hospital for a Sexual Assault Forensic Examination, Jane Doe told a social worker that she and Rivera were in a sexual relationship and evidence proving that would be present on their cell phones which were seized during the search warrant at Rivera’s house.  A search warrant was subsequently executed on the digital items seized, including the two cell phones.  The SD cards of the phones were forensically examined and found to contain 18 videos of Rivera and Jane Doe engaged in sexually explicit conduct, which were all taken by Rivera or by Jane Doe at Rivera’s direction. 

After his arrest and detention, Rivera admitted that he made over 700 calls to Jane Doe saying things like: She was the reason he was locked up; everyone knew that Rivera was arrested because Jane Doe lied and that everything was her fault.  Rivera also instructed Jane Doe to: recant her statement to the social worker; deny that it was her in the videos; and to lie at his trial on drug charges in Cecil County.  On January 22, 2019, several letters Rivera had written to Jane Doe from the detention center were recovered and reviewed by law enforcement.  One letter told Jane Doe to get her family to say that it was not Jane Doe in the videos.  Rivera stated, “You have to beg them to understand that it’s not fair that an innocent man is in jail because of your lies…”

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 Attorney’s 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 individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.       

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended the FBI, Maryland State Police, and the Cecil County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson T. Mihok, who prosecuted the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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