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Luis Rivera, 34, formerly of Elkton Maryland, was sentenced in US District Court to 20 years in federal prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, Judge George L. Russell, III announced.
Russell ordered that the federal sentence be served consecutive to the 12-year state sentence Rivera is currently serving for a state drug conviction.
Rivera was arrested on drug charges in Cecil County in January 2018, at which time he was found in bed with a 15-year-old girl, according to the Department of Justice. Rivera denied having a sexual relationship with the teen, and stated that the crack cocaine, powder cocaine, and heroin, located in his bedroom belonged to her at the time.
While at the hospital for a Sexual Assault Forensic Examination, the girl told a social worker that she and Rivera were in a sexual relationship, and evidence proving that would be readily present on their cell phones, which were seized during the search warrant at his house.
A search warrant was subsequently executed on the digital items seized, including the two cell phones, officials said.
The SD cards of the phones were forensically examined and found to contain 18 videos of Rivera and the teen engaged in sexually explicit conduct, which were all taken by Rivera or by the girl at Rivera’s direction, they added.
Following his arrest, Rivera admitted that he made over 700 calls to the teenager, including claims that “she was the reason he was locked up; everyone knew that Rivera was arrested because she lied and that everything was her fault,” according to prosecutors.
Rivera also instructed the teen to recant her statement to the social worker, deny that it was her in the videos, and to lie at his trial on drug charges in Cecil County.
On Jan. 22, 2019, several letters Rivera had written to Jane Doe from the detention center were recovered and reviewed by law enforcement instructing her to say it wasn’t her in the video, stating that: “you have to beg them to understand that it’s not fair that an innocent man is in jail because of your lies…”
Upon his release, Rivera must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student.
He has been locked up since his initial arrest.
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