Week In Review – Hammond

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Mary Hatton

www.usdoj.gov/usao/inn/ CELL: (219) 314-9993

mary.hatton@usdoj.gov

Hammond, Indiana—The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in Federal Court:

COMPLAINT:

Nathan Demar Huey-Dingle, 31, of South Bend, Indiana, was charged by Complaint with sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and transporting across state lines for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation.This case has been assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill Koster.

PLEA:

Joshua Atwood, 29, of Crown Point, Indiana, pled guilty before Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to the felony offense of possession of child pornography.This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill Koster.

Francisco Perez, 32, of Gary, Indiana, pled guilty before Magistrate Judge Christopher Nuechterlein to the felony offense of possession with the intent to distribute cocaine.Magistrate Nuechterlein is recommending that the district court accept the tendered guilty plea.Parties have 10 days in which to object to the magistrate judge’s recommendation.Sentencing has been set for 8/1/13.This charge was filed as a result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank Schaffer.

DISPOSITIONS:

Michael Hostetler, 29, of Portage, Indiana, was sentenced by District Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen to 96 months imprisonment, $2000.00 in restitution to each of two victims, a $5000.00 fine and 20 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.According to documents filed by the government in this case, a Michigan City Police Department officer using a computer connected to the Internet launched a publicly available peer-to-peer ("P2P") file sharing program from his office in the Michigan City Police Department. The officer browsed the shared directories and was able to download at least three images that depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The IP address was identified as belonging to Hostetler.A search warrant was obtained authorizing a search of Hostetler’s residence where law enforcement found videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct saved to a laptop computer belonging to Hostetler.This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Michigan City Police Department and the Indiana State Police.This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill Koster.

Maria Sustaita, 50, of East Chicago, Indiana, was sentenced by District Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen to 24 months plus 12 days imprisonment, $6,836.14 in restitution and 1 year of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offenses of aggravated identity theft and obstruction of correspondence.According to documents filed by the government in this case, Sustaita added her name, or an alias, to the existing credit card accounts of victims without their knowledge; made purchases on these takeover credit accounts of the victims without their knowledge; opened new credit card accounts utilizing the personal identifying information of the victims without their knowledge;made personal purchases on these fraudulently opened credit cards without the knowledge of the victims; redirected U.S. mail from the address of the victims to her residence; and redirected the victims mail, as well as any other correspondence or packages associated with the fraudulently obtained credit cards. The victims were seniors - one victim was born in 1925 making him 87 years of age and the other victim was born in 1926 making her 86 years of age. The defendant entered the homes of these individuals with the express purpose of victimizing them based upon their age. This case was the result of an investigation by the United States Postal Service-Office of the Inspector General.This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Toi Houston.

Jose Zambrano, 33, of Chicago, Illinois, a defendant in the case US v Vargas et al., was sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to 240 months imprisonment and 5 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity.Zambrano, a member of the Latin Kings street gang, conspired to conduct and participate in the conduct of the enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity consisting of multiple acts involving murder, robbery and narcotics trafficking. This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); the National Gang Targeting, Enforcement & Coordination Center (GangTECC); the National Gang Intelligence Center; the Chicago Police Department; the Griffith Police Department; the Hammond Police Department; the Highland Police Department; the Lake County, Indiana, HIDTA and the Houston, Texas Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Joseph Cooley of the Department of Justice Criminal Division, Gang Unit, and Assistant United States Attorney David Nozick.

Marcus McCants, 35, of Sauk Village, Illinois, a defendant in the case US v Powell et al., was sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to 57 months imprisonment and 5 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of conspiracy to distribute one kilo or more of heroin.This case was the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration.This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Chang-Adiga.