Revere Man Pleads Guilty to Failing to Register as a Sex Offender

BOSTON – A Revere man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to failure to register as a sex offender. 

Steven Veno, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register as a sex offender. U.S. Senior District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. scheduled sentencing for April 24, 2018.

Veno is required to register as a Level 2 sex offender in Massachusetts based on Massachusetts state court convictions for rape of a child in 1993. The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act requires Veno to register in any jurisdiction where he lives or works.

Law enforcement officers learned that over the past several years Veno had been traveling from Massachusetts to Florida, where he lived and worked for periods of time over several years, without registering as a sex offender in that community. Veno has been in custody since his arrest in September 2017.

Failing to register as a sex offender provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, a minimum of five years and up to lifetime supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and John Gibbons, United States Marshal for the District of Massachusetts, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Paruti, Lelling’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator and a member of the Major Crimes Unit, is prosecuting the case.

The case was 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 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/.