Registered Sex Offender Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Federal Offenses Stemming From Attack of 15-Year-Old

             WASHINGTON – Charles Morgan, 57, a registered sex offender who is formerly of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 40 years in prison on child exploitation charges and other offenses stemming from his sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl he picked up at a bus stop. 

            The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, Michael Hughes, U.S. Marshal for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Peter Newsham, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Morgan was found guilty by a jury on May 2, 2018, following a trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was found guilty that day of two federal charges, including one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and one count of attempted production of child pornography.  On May 5, 2018, the Court found him guilty of two additional federal counts of commission of a crime of violence against a minor while being required to register as a sex offender.

            Morgan was sentenced by the Honorable Senior Judge Ellen S. Huvelle. Following completion of his prison term, he is to be placed on supervised release for the rest of his life. He also must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

            According to the government’s evidence, the defendant, a convicted rapist, sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl on May 23, 2016. The victim had left home after dark without telling her family and was trying to catch a bus to a friend’s house.  Morgan, who was in a car, pulled over near the bus stop at Minnesota Avenue and Randall Circle SE and offered the victim a ride.  Given that it was nearly midnight, there was no bus in sight, and the victim’s cellular phone was dead, she reluctantly accepted because Morgan showed her a business card and an identification badge to reassure her of his identity.  Instead of taking the victim to her friend’s home, Morgan drove the victim to his basement apartment in Capitol Heights, Maryland, and anally sodomized her.  Morgan told the victim to wash off in the bathroom, gave her a pair of his underwear to put on, then drove her back into the District of Columbia and dropped her off along the street near where he had picked her up.  Morgan told the victim that he was going to pick her up again the following weekend so that he and his roommate could engage in sexual acts with her.

             The victim immediately reported the rape.  An undercover officer assumed the victim’s identity and engaged in a text conversation with Morgan in which the defendant insisted that he was going to pick up the victim the following weekend to assault her again. Morgan also demanded that the victim take naked photos of genitals and send them to him. He was arrested shortly thereafter and charged in the District of Columbia on the charges for which he stands convicted.  Morgan has also been charged in Maryland with rape charges stemming from the sexual assault of the victim that occurred in his residence there.

            Morgan was already registering as a sex offender as a result of an armed rape of a woman that he committed in 1989. He was released from prison in that case in 2009.

            In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu, Marshal Hughes, Assistant Director in Charge McNamara, and Chief Newsham commended the work of Senior Inspector Floriano Whitwell and other members of the D.C. Superior Court Sex Offender Investigations Section of the U.S. Marshals Service, who investigated the case, as well as those who worked on the case from the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department.

            They acknowledged those who assisted with the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Suttenberg, of the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section; Elizabeth Trosman, Chief of the Appellate Division; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Bates and Nicholas Coleman, of the Appellate Division, and Michael Ambrosino, Special Counsel for DNA and Forensic Evidence Litigation. They also acknowledged the assistance provided by Criminal Investigator John Marsh; Victim/Witness Advocate Yvonne Bryant; Witness Security Specialist Debra Cannon; Forensic Operation/Program Specialist Benjamin Kagan-Guthrie; Paralegal Supervisor Michelle Wicker; Paralegal Specialist Tiffany Jones; former Paralegal Specialist Donhue Troy Griffith; Litigation Technology Specialist Anisha Bhatia, and former Litigation Technology Specialist Joshua Ellen. 

            Finally, they commended the work of Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrea L. Hertzfeld and Jason Park, who investigated and prosecuted the case.

            This case was part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative and was, along with the U.S. Marshals Service Sex Offender Investigations Section, investigated by the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI's Washington Field Office and MPD.  In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.  Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, 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 identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov