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Press Release

Boylston Man Pleads Guilty to Distributing and Possessing Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A Boylston man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Worcester to two child pornography charges.

 

Randy Alan Chaplis, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography involving a prepubescent minor and a minor who had not attained 12 years of age. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Hillman scheduled sentencing for March 22, 2018.  Chaplis was arrested and charged by criminal complaint on March 16, 2017, and has been detained since his arrest. 

 

On Feb. 9, 2017, Chaplis sent two emails to an undercover law enforcement officer that included dozens of images of child pornography, including prepubescent girls engaged in sex acts with adult men. In other email communications with the undercover officer, Chaplis stated that he likes three-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 the sexual acts he purportedly performed on his girlfriend’s child starting when the child was two-years-old. He asked whether the undercover officer intended to have sexual intercourse with the undercover officer’s infant daughter once she turned three or four. 

 

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

 

The charging statutes provide for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, a minimum of five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. 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; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Office; and Michael Shea, Acting 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 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to 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/.          

 

Updated December 21, 2017

Topic
Project Safe Childhood