Massachusetts Man Charged With Online Enticement Of A Child To Engage In Criminal Sexual Conduct

NEWARK, N.J. – A Dracut, Massachusetts, man who allegedly made arrangements to engage in sexual conduct with a child was arrested this morning at a North Jersey hotel, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced. 

Richard Bly, 66, is charged by criminal complaint with one count of online enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual conduct. He appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leda Dunn Wettre in Newark federal court and was detained.

According to the complaint:

On Feb. 7, 2017, Bly posted an advertisement on an internet website seeking to meet a parent willing to make their child available to him for sexual activity. Over the course of several weeks, Bly had numerous e-mail exchanges with an undercover law enforcement agent posing as the mother of an eight-year-old girl. Bly repeatedly expressed his interest in engaging in sexual activity with the child and made plans to meet the child and her mother at a hotel in Ramsey, New Jersey. Law enforcement officers arrested Bly this morning at the hotel.

The online enticement of a minor charge carries a maximum potential penalty of life in prison, a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years, and a $250,000 fine. 

Acting U.S. Attorney Fitzpatrick credited special agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Newark Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Terrence Opiola, with the investigation. He also thanked the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of under the direction of Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal, for its assistance.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua L. Haber of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit.   

Defense counsel: David Holman Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender