Manchester Man Sentenced to 80 Months in Prison for Child Exploitation Offense

John H. Durham. United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that LUQMAN GOTTI, formerly known as Timothy Pennington, 39, of Manchester, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to 80 months of imprisonment, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for exchanging sexually explicit images with a teenage boy.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in June 2017, Gotti and a 13-year-old boy were communicating through the Kik messaging application.  After the boy informed Gotti that he was 14 years old, Gotti asked the boy for pictures and sent the boy a sexually explicit image of himself, intending that the boy send Gotti a sexually explicit picture in return.  The boy then sent sexually explicit pictures of himself to Gotti.  Later in the conversation, Gotti told the boy “I already went to jail over a 14 year old not trying to go through that again.”  Gotti then asked the boy for more sexually explicit pictures.  In response, the boy sent Gotti another sexually explicit photograph and video of himself.

In 2000, Gotti was convicted in state court of second degree sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.  At the time of this offense, Gotti’s name was Timothy Pennington.  He subsequently changed his name to Luqman Gotti.

Gotti has been detained since November 14, 2017, when he was arrested on related state charges.  On December 20, 2018, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of accessing with intent to view child pornography.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Manchester Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

To report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.