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Rick Marro, age 42, of Stamford was charged on Thursday, Jan. 18 following an investigation into the allegations made by the boy in August 2023, said Vanessa Roberts Avery, US Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Marro appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Dave Vatti in Bridgeport and was ordered detained, Avery said.
As alleged in court documents, law enforcement began investigating Marro in August 2023 after a 16-year-old boy reported that he had been sexually exploited by Marro.
The victim reported that he met Marro on a dating application, and they then began communicating on Snapchat in April 2023. The victim indicated that they met in person at Marro’s house on multiple occasions, and two of the encounters were sexual, court documents show.
During the encounters, the victim said Marro gave him “poppers,” that Marro was “into” asphyxiation, and, on one occasion, Marro strangled him and he passed out “for a minute or two.”
A law enforcement review of the victim’s Snapchat account showed that Marro sent him videos that Marro had recorded of them engaged in sexual activity. He also sent the victim a video depicting Marro choking him, court records say.
During an examination of Marro’s phone, law enforcement located the same videos that he recorded and sent the victim showing them engaged in sexual activity, officials said.
Investigators also located text messages that Marro had sent to another individual in which Marro stated that he “choked [the victim] all the way to unconscious today by accident.”
The complaint charges Marro with:
- Production of child pornography
- Receipt and distribution of child pornography,
- Possession of child pornography
If found guilty, he faces more than 50 years in prison.
The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Stamford Police Department.
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