Cumberland Man Sentenced for Cyberstalking, Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

PROVIDENCE – A Cumberland man who “marginalized and controlled” a young woman whom he befriended online when she was a minor, and then harassed and threatened when she attempted to end their friendship when she was nineteen, was sentenced today to more than six years in federal prison, announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.

Melvin Vidal Herrera Perez, 21, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy to 78 months of incarceration; 10 years of supervised release; ordered to register as a sex offender; and to pay a total of $38,000, pursuant to the Justice for Victims Act of 2015 and provisions of the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018.

Perez pleaded guilty in May 2025 to one count of cyberstalking and four counts of distribution of child pornography.

According to information presented to the court, Perez befriended the victim online when she was fourteen and engaged in a friendship that lasted for about four years. During that time, he encouraged her to provide him with sexually explicit images of herself. In the fall of 2024, Perez used a variety of tactics to intentionally cause serious emotional distress to the woman by creating a Google Drive link containing images of child pornography produced at Perez’s request years’ prior; setting up social media accounts to display sexually explicit images of the victim; providing those links to others,  linking to them to a social media platform;  texting and emailing explicit images of the victim and providing the website links to a wide number of individuals in her personal and social circles.

As reflected in information presented to the court, Perez claimed that he was “doing God’s work,” when he harassed the victim and disseminated the child pornography and other personal information about her.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Julie M. White.

The matter was investigated by the FBI, with valuable assistance provided by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and other Philadelphia area law enforcement agencies.    

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.

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