FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Docket #s: 1:11-cr-00134 LJO

FRESNO, Calif.—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that after a two-day jury trial, Jose Hernandez-Velazquez, 54, of Van Nuys, was found guilty of four separate counts of producing child pornography. 

According to court records, in March 2011 the Los Angeles Police Department, Delano Police Department, as well as both the Los Angeles and Bakersfield Homeland Security Investigations offices within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, commenced a joint investigation into Hernandez-Velazquez’s producing child pornography in Delano, California, within the January 2010 through February 2011 time frame.  Working off a tip from a private citizen, these offices collectively obtained a warrant to analyze defendant’s camera and data storage devices, identified the location of the crimes, identified victims and obtained incriminating statements from defendant within the next 24 hours.  After the presentation of evidence, the jury deliberated for less than an hour before reaching its verdict.  Hernandez-Velazquez has been in custody since his arrest on March 9, 2011.  Assistant United States Attorneys Brian W. Enos and Stanley A. Boone prosecuted the case.  

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC mobilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, 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.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill on March 11, 2013, at 10:30 a.m.  The maximum statutory penalty on the indictment is thirty (30) years in prison and a criminal fine of $250,000 on each separate count.  However, the actual sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables, and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.

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