New York Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Traveling to Engage in Sex with a Minor

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Jerome S. Goldstein, 78, of Long Beach, New York, was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

Evidence presented to the court showed that in late 2022, members of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), conducted an undercover investigation targeting online sexual offenders. As part of this investigation, an officer created an undercover online persona of a 13-year-old girl on a social messaging app.

Between Nov. 28, 2022, and Feb. 15, 2023, Goldstein communicated online with the undercover officer.  In their conversations, Goldstein requested that the purported 13-year-old child engage in sexual acts and send him child sexual abuse material. He also informed her that he planned to travel from New York to South Carolina to have sex with her.

On Feb. 15, 2023, Goldstein drove from Long Beach, New York to Goose Creek, South Carolina to meet the purported 13-year-old, and to engage in illicit sexual conduct with her. When Goldstein arrived, he encountered law enforcement officers instead and was placed under arrest. Goldstein admitted that he traveled from New York to South Carolina to engage in illicit sexual conduct with the girl. Goldstein had planned to take to a hotel room he had reserved.

United States District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks sentenced Goldstein to 46 months imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime term of court-ordered supervision.  There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), including the FBI Columbia field office, Homeland Security Investigations, Goose Creek Police Department, Mount Pleasant Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean H. Secor is prosecuting the case.

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