PORT NECHES, Texas — A former assistant chief probation officer for Lynn District Court in Massachusetts is facing decades in prison after he was convicted of child sexual exploitation offenses involving a 13-year-old in Port Neches.
Brian Orlandella, 49, of Beverly, Massachusetts, was convicted by a federal jury on Wednesday of sexual exploitation of a child and transfer of obscene material to a minor, according to the US Attorney's Office of Massachusetts.
Port Neches Det. Scott Thompson responded to an address in May 2018 in Port Neches in reference to an online solicitation of a child.
A mother contacted Port Neches Police about messages she found on her 13-year-old daughter’s cell phone between her daughter and an adult man, later identified as Orlandella, officials said.
Port Neches Sgt. Cheri Griffith's investigation helped identify the suspect as Orlandella. At that time, he was 46-years-old and worked as an assistant chief probation officer in Beverly, Massachusetts.
Griffith reached out to Homeland Security and provided them with the information.
The messages between Orlandella and the girl were sent via the Kik mobile messaging app. Officials said Orlandella sent the girl images of him pleasing himself and directed her to send him sexually explicit pictures and videos of herself.
The victim told him she was 14-years-old, and he acknowledged that he was much older than she was, according to a news release.
The Kik account’s IP address was traced to Orlandella’s residence, officials said. During a search of his home, two of Orlandella’s phones were seized.
One phone revealed evidence tying Orlandella to the Kik account that was used to obtain sexually explicit imagery from the victim, according to the release.
During an interview at Orlandella's home, officials said he admitted that he used Kik and was the person seen in the obscene videos recovered from the victim’s phone.
Homeland Security later obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect and charged him with sexual exploitation of a child.
Orlandella was arrested and charged in December 2018 and indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2019.
Orlandella was convicted of the following after a six-day jury trial: One count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of transfer of obscene material to a minor.
Officials said U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Aug. 5, 2022.
The charge of sexual exploitation of children comes with the following:
- A mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to 30 years in prison,
- At least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release
- A fine of $250,000
The charge of the transfer of obscene material to a minor comes with the following:
- Sentence of up to 10 years in prison,
- Three years of supervised release
- A fine of $150,000
Law enforcement officials ask parents and guardians to monitor their child's use of electronics and social media. If you suspect a child is being sexually exploited, please report the incident to your local agency or missingkids.org.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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