FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
March 28, 2012	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 2:11-cr-472-KJM

            SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Larry Gorbet Jr., 32, of Chester, pleaded guilty today to attempting to entice a minor to engage in unlawful sex acts.

            Gorbet was charged in a one-count indictment late last year with using a facility or means of interstate commerce to knowingly persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a minor to engage in unlawful sexual conduct. This case is the product of an investigation by the FBI and the Susanville Police Department. Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Laurel White who is prosecuting the case.

            According to court documents, on September 25, 2011, police in Susanville received a report about an adult male providing marijuana to two juvenile females within the city of Susanville. Through the initial investigation police learned that the suspect was Gorbet, and he had met with his cousin, a 14-year-old girl, and her friend, a 13-year-old girl. During that meeting, Gorbet provided the girls marijuana and talked about the prospects of the 13-year-old girl becoming his girlfriend. Thereafter, Gorbet began to text his cousin about establishing a relationship with her friend. When Gorbet’s texts were brought to the attention of local police, a detective received permission to use the girl’s cell phone to further investigate Gorbet.

            Posing as the girls, the detective responded to Gorbet by sending a text message. During that text messaging session, and the many that followed, Gorbet disclosed that he had romantic feelings for the 13-year-old girl and indicated in explicit terms that he wanted to be her boyfriend and engage in sex acts with her. The undercover detective, still posing as the 13-year-old girl, arranged a meeting at the 13-year-old girl’s residence on October 20, 2011. When Gorbet stepped into the house, police officers arrested him.

            According to court documents, Gorbet brought with him to the girl’s residence items used for sex, a digital camera with video recording capability, a tripod for the camera, marijuana, and the cell phone that he used to communicate with the purported 13-year-old girl. Gorbet was later interviewed by police. He admitted he sought to have a “boyfriend and girlfriend type” of relationship with the 13-year-old girl because girls her age seemed to understand him better than adult females. Gorbet claimed that he came to Susanville to talk the girl into waiting to have sex until she was at least 14 years of age, but that he knew there was a chance they would have sex on October 20, 2011.

            Gorbet is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27, 2012 by United States District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller. He faces a sentence of 10 years up to life in prison, a $250,000 fine, a possible life-term of supervised release, and an order of restitution to victims. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

            This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.

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