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Press Release

Dallas County Man Sentenced to 90 Years in Federal Prison for Producing Child Pornography

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

DALLAS — A Hutchins, Texas, man, Servando Vega Cervantes, 25, was sentenced yesterday afternoon by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to 90 years in federal prison, following his guilty plea in February 2015 to an indictment charging three counts of production of child pornography involving four victims, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, the Hutchins Police Department contacted the FBI in May 2014 regarding questionable online communication between an 11-year-old victim, “John Doe #1,” and the Facebook user profile of “Laura Ortiz.”  The victim’s mother believed the user of the Ortiz profile was actually an adult male and not a 13-year-old female as described in chat conversations between John Doe #1 and Ortiz.  The investigation revealed that the user profile “Laura Ortiz” belonged to Cervantes.  The investigation also revealed that John Doe #1 knew Cervantes as “Jordan,” an alias Cervantes used.

According to the factual resume filed in the case and testimony presented at today’s sentencing hearing, Cervantes enticed 11-year-old John Doe #1 to engage in sexually explicit conduct, and Cervantes took photos of that conduct.  Cervantes enticed another minor, under the age of 14, John Doe #2, to engage in sexually explicit conduct and Cervantes also took photos of that conduct.  Cervantes also asked John Doe #2 to send sexually explicit photos to “Laura Ortiz.”  John Doe #3, a 15-year-old boy, sent sexually explicit photos to Cervantes, upon Cervantes’ repeated requests.  Cervantes also had sexually explicit photos of another prepubescent boy, John Doe #4, whom he met on Facebook, on a thumb drive.

Cervantes had sexual contact with two of the four victim John Does.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Project Safe Childhood (PSC) initiative.  PSC is a department initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes against children.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state, tribal and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.  Since FY 2011, the Department of Justice has filed 20,260 PSC cases against 19,111 defendants.  These cases include prosecutions of child sex trafficking; sexual abuse of a minor or ward; child pornography offenses; obscene visual representation of the sexual abuse of children; selling or buying of children; and many more statutes.  To learn more about PSC’s work, please visit: https://www.justice.gov/psc.

The FBI’s Dallas Child Exploitation Task Force and the Hutchins Police Department investigated the case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks was in charge of the prosecution.

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Updated May 6, 2016

Topic
Project Safe Childhood