LawFuel.com – Federal Prison Sentence to Run Consecutively to 16-Year State Prison Term

An Ecuadorian citizen who lived in Los Angeles was sentenced today to 25 years in federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography, a sentence that will run consecutively to a 16-year term the defendant received in state court for sexually abusing a young girl.

Freddy Paz, 46, who lived in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge John F. Walter, who called Paz a “monster.”

Paz pleaded guilty earlier this year to several federal criminal charges, admitting that he took digital photographs and videos of a young girl as she posed nude and engaged in sex with Paz. The abuse started when the girl was 9 and continued until she was 11. Paz had access to the victim over a two-year period because he often babysat for the victim and her younger brother while their mother was at work.

In 2006, Paz was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and was sentenced to 16 years in state prison. Because Paz made multiple videos and took approximately 1,700 pictures that depicted his on-going sexual abuse of the victim – and because he possessed more than 7,000 pornographic photos of other children – the Justice Department authorized the filing of federal charges in 2007. On May 14, 2009, Paz pleaded guilty to production of child pornography, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

As a result of his guilty pleas, Paz faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 60 years. When Judge Walter issued the 25-year sentence, he specifically said that this would run consecutive to the 16-year term handed down by the state court, meaning that Paz has received a cumulative sentence of 41 years in the state and federal cases.

The case against Paz was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department.

CONTACT: Assistant United States Attorney Justin R. Rhoades

Violent and Organized Crime Section

(213) 894-3380

Assistant United States Attorney Brian R. Michael

Violent and Organized Crime Section

(213) 894-0340

Release No. 09-120

LawFuel.com –
Special Agents with the FBI arrested a Chicago-area man Friday night on federal charges of interstate stalking for allegedly taking nude videos of a television broadcaster and posting those videos on the Internet after attempting to sell the videos to a celebrity website.

Michael David Barrett, 48, of Westmont, Illinois, was taken into custody without incident at Chicago O’Hare Airport after being named in a criminal complaint filed late Friday afternoon in United States District Court in Los Angeles. Barrett made his initial appearance in United States District Court in Chicago on Saturday morning and was ordered to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on October 23. This morning, Barrett was released on bond.

The complaint charges Barrett with interstate stalking, specifically alleging that he stalked the victim “with the intent to harass, to place under surveillance with intent to harass and intimidate, and to cause substantial emotional distress to a person in another state.”

The victim in this case, an on-air personality with ESPN who is identified in court documents as “E.A.,” travels across the country in the course of her work. Videos of E.A. were taken while she was undressed in two hotel rooms. Seven of the eight videos subsequently posted on an Internet site appear to have been taken in one hotel room that the victim believes is in Nashville. At the hotel room where the victim stayed in September 2008, the FBI later discovered that the peephole in the door had been altered. Subsequent investigation showed that Barrett stayed in the hotel room adjacent to E.A. after specifically requesting a room adjacent to the victim.

The FBI investigation uncovered evidence that Barrett registered at a Milwaukee hotel where E.A. was staying in July 2008, but that he never checked in. However, the peephole on the door where the victim stayed during that trip was altered in a similar way to the peephole found in the Nashville hotel.

In January 2009, TMZ.com was offered the opportunity to purchase the videos of the victim via email messages. An individual at TMZ.com provided some of the information from the emails to an attorney representing the victim. The email was linked to Barrett through a number of methods.

A criminal complaint contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The statutory maximum penalty for the charge of interstate stalking is five years in federal prison.

The case against Barrett was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Los Angeles Field Office, with assistance from the FBI’s Chicago Field Office. The Chicago Police Department provided assistance with the arrest of Barrett.

CONTACT: Assistant United States Attorney Wesley L. Hsu

Chief, Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section