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California Private Investigator Sentenced to 74 Months in Prison for Possessing and Transporting Child Pornography

U.S. Attorney’s Office October 13, 2009
  • District of Columbia (202) 252-6933

WASHINGTON—Raphael Giraldo, a 36-year-old resident of Chino, California, was sentenced today by Judge Ricardo Urbina, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to 74 months in prison for Transportation of Child Pornography, and a concurrent term of 74 months for Possession of Child Pornography, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy L. Lanier, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Giraldo pled guilty to the charges on May 19, 2009.

According to the government’s evidence presented at the plea hearing, on August 31, 2007, a member of the FBI/MPD Child Exploitation Task Force, acting undercover and posing as a pedophile, entered a pedophile fetish chat room and posted a message asking if anyone had access to a child. Within minutes, the defendant replied, “not in the U.S.” An e-mail conversation then began between the undercover officer and the defendant in which the defendant explained that he had connections with a madam in Colombia who could provide children under the age of ten for sex in exchange for money, and that he could facilitate a trip to Columbia to have sex with children. Over the course of the chat, the defendant sent multiple still images to the undercover officer of female children under 10 years old having sexual contact with adult males.

During the conversation, the defendant also provided the undercover officer with his phone number in Chino, California. The undercover officer, with a tape-recorder rolling, called the defendant. During the telephone conversation, the defendant reiterated his desire to travel to Colombia with the undercover for the purpose of having sex with children. The defendant also stated that he had already traveled to Colombia several times and had sex with children – the youngest being ten years old.

In December 2007, a search warrant was executed on the defendant’s house and his computer. The search revealed that the defendant possessed more than 10,000 images of female children having sexual contact with adult males.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood and the District of Columbia MPD/FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. 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.

In announcing the sentence, Acting U.S. Attorney Phillips, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Lanier, and Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Persichini, Jr. praised the quick action and investigative work during this Project Safe Childhood initiative of a joint task force consisting of Metropolitan Police Department Detective Timothy Palchak, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents. They also commended Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Duey, who prosecuted the case.

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