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Brian Orlandella of Beverly was convicted of sexual exploitation of a child and sending obscene material to a minor in April, but a judge didn't impose a sentence until Friday, Aug. 5, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts said.
Orlandella's relationship with the girl was uncovered in 2018 when the Texas teenager's mother found photos and videos on her phone, prosecutors said. Orlandella sent videos of himself masturbating through the social messaging app Kik and asked the child to do the same.
In the transcript of their conversations, the girl told Orlandella that she was 14, and he acknowledged their age gap, officials said.
Orlandella, who served as a probation officer since 2008, submitted a stack of character references from his daughter, friends, police officers, and attorneys who asked the judge to consider leniency, Salem News reported. Orlandella did not address the court during his sentencing.
In a letter to the court, the victim's mother said they had to pull the girl out of school because of the psychological stress Orlandella caused her, the newspaper said. The teenager blamed herself for the strain the investigation and trial put on her family.
"While you were inexplicably asking this vulnerable 13-year-old girl to gratify your own sexual desires, you were inflicting harm on her and others," the mother wrote to the court, per Salem News. "I'm confident you would be deeply disturbed and angry if someone induced your daughter to do this."
Orlandella faced a mandatory sentence of 15 years on the sexual exploitation charge. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf chose to go above that because he wanted to set an example and because Wolf believed Orlandella had lied during the trial.
"I'm persuaded that you lied to me, you knew you were lying to me, and even after you were arrested in this crime, you committed another crime, perjury," Wolf told Orlandella, according to Salem News. "I can't say what I would have given you if you hadn't lied to me."
Orlandella told the court in 2020 that federal investigators didn't provide him his "Miranda" rights before questioning, Salem News said. He also claimed he didn't know what those rights were, even though he worked as a law enforcement agent for two decades.
Orlandella will also serve five years of supervised release and must pay $5,000 to a victims fund.
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