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Man to plead guilty to child porn production
A 41-year-old man facing charges in federal court of possessing a cellular phone that contained images of children that included one image of the genitals of a boy has expressed his intent to plead guilty.
Rogelio N. Dela Cruz, through court-appointed counsel F. Matthew Smith, reached an agreement with the U.S. government to schedule a change of plea hearing.
Dela Cruz and the prosecution asked the U.S. District Court for the NMI to vacate the jury trial scheduled for Monday, July 9.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona on Thursday granted the request.
The indictment charged Dela Cruz with one count of production of child pornography.
According to the indictment, between March 1, 2010 and March 18, 2011, Dela Cruz coerced a boy to “engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.”
Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent Haejun Park stated in his affidavit that, on March 18, 2011, police arrested Dela Cruz on Rota for various charges related to possible sexual assault of a girl.
Park said the officer observed that Dela Cruz’s cell phone contained several images of young children and an image of a boy’s genitals.
The FBI obtained a federal warrant to search the defendant’s cell phone last April 20 where several images of young children and the image of a boy’s penis were found.
By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter
