Boylston Man Charged with Distributing Child Pornography

BOSTON – A Boylston man was arrested and charged yesterday in U.S. District Court in Worcester for distributing child pornography.

Randy Alan Chaplis, 32, was charged in a criminal complaint with distributing child pornography. Chaplis was arrested on Thursday, March 16, 2017, and was detained pending a hearing scheduled for March 20, 2017.

According to the complaint, on Feb. 9, 2017, Chaplis sent an email to an undercover law enforcement officer that included multiple images of child pornography. During other email communications with this undercover officer, Chaplis stated that he likes 3-to-10 year olds and that he has “fun” with his girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter when her mother is not home. Chaplis emailed graphic descriptions of sexual acts he had purportedly performed with this child and asked whether the undercover officer intended to have sexual intercourse with an infant daughter once she turned three or four. The complaint also alleges that Chaplis bragged to another internet user about having sexual intercourse with a four-year-old-girl.

On March 15, 2017, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Chaplis’s residence and located an external hard drive and a desktop computer that included multiple images of child pornography.

The charging statute provides a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and no greater than 20 years in prison, a minimum of five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb and Matthew Etre, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney William F. Abely of Weinreb’s Worcester Branch Office is prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case is brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.