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Richard Gabriel Piedra Ordonez, 36, of Queens, pretended to be 19 when he began communicating with the under-16 girl on Snapchat and other social media and messaging platforms, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Over the next several months, Piedra told a federal judge on Thursday, he drove to New Jersey for sex and twice took her back to his home for the same purpose.
He also gave the victim a cellphone so they could communicate with each other, a complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Camden says. Federal agents said they found photos of the two of them, along with a video of them having intercourse, on the phone.
The girl’s mother alerted police about their relationship after finding messages between them, one of which confirmed that Piedra knew her daughter’s age, the complaint says.
Piedra broke federal law by crossing state lines with the minor for sex, so the FBI took the case, Carpenito said.
Agents who conducted a warranted search on an apartment he shared with family members found "sexually explicit images and videos of minors on a hard drive located in Piedra’s bedroom,” Carpenito said.
They soon discovered that he’d communicated online with an Indiana resident who was under 15 while again posing as a 19-year-old.
“Piedra requested and received sexually explicit images and videos from this victim,” the U.S. attorney said.
Piedra took a deal from the government rather than go to trial, pleading guilty during a video-conferenced hearing in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday to coercion and enticement of a minor, transporting a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity and receiving child pornography.
In addition to a guaranteed federal prison sentence and fines, he will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law as part of the sentencing that U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman scheduled for April 14.
Carpenito credited special agents with the FBI’s Atlantic City Child Exploitation & Human Trafficking Task Force, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, and New Jersey State Police with the investigation leading to the guilty plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Friedman of the his Criminal Division in Camden.
The U.S. attorney also thanked the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office for its assistance.
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