Couple Admits to Producing Sexually Explicit Pictures of a Child

Greenbelt, Maryland – Jesus Coca, age 35, and his wife Caroline Coca, age 36, both of Hawthorne, California, pleaded guilty today to producing child pornography.

The guilty pleas were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Andre R. Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Special Agent in Charge Claude Arnold of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Hawthorne (California) Police Chief Robert Fager; Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell; Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey; and St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron.

According to their plea agreements, on December 3, 2014, a 14 year old child reported to a school counselor in Hawthorne, California that Jesus Coca was sexually abusing the child.

More than once from the summer 2012 to early 2013, Jesus directed Caroline to perform sexual acts on the victim while Jesus watched a live transmission on his cell phone over FaceTime.  Jesus also had FaceTime chats with the victim in which he directed the victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct.  Jesus screen captured numerous images of the live transmissions of the victim engaged in such conduct, and on numerous occasions sent the screen captures by text message to Caroline.

Caroline provided the victim access to her cell phone and encouraged the victim to engage in these FaceTime sessions with Jesus.

On December 3, 2014, Hawthorne, California police officers executed a search warrant at a residence located in Hawthorne, California, and seized computer hard drives containing cell phone backups for cell phones belonging to Jesus and Caroline. These backups contained numerous text messages between them regarding the sexual abuse and exploitation of the victim.

As part of their plea agreements, Jesus and Caroline Coca must register as a sex offender in the place where they reside, where they are an employee, and where they are a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Jesus and Caroline Coca and the government have agreed that if the Court accepts their plea agreements, Jesus will be sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Caroline will be sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release for both defendants.  U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm has scheduled sentencing for Jesus Coca on July 7, 2016 at 1:30 p.m., and sentencing for Caroline Coca on July 8, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. Both defendants are detained.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended HSI Baltimore and HSI Los Angeles, Hawthorne Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristi O’Malley, who is prosecuting the case.