Sex Offender Who Failed to Register, then Traveled to Engage in Illicit Sex with Minor, is Sentenced to 7.25 Years

May 21, 2010 - FRESNO—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that on Wednesday, Senior United States District Judge Oliver W. Wanger sentenced Jeffrey Alan Brohn, 44, of Flushing, Mich., to seven years and three months in prison for using the Internet to induce a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, travel in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity, and failure to register as a sex offender. The sentence also includes a 10-year term of supervised release, where he will be required to register as a sex offender, and his access to minors, computers, and the Internet will be restricted.

This case was the result of an investigation by Fresno FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force, which includes the California Department of Justice and the Visalia Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys David Gappa and Ian Garriques prosecuted the case.

According to the plea agreement, Brohn admitted that from approximately October 2005 through June 2006, he engaged in multiple voice and electronic text communications with a minor for the purpose of meeting the minor to engage in illicit sexual activity. Brohn also admitted that he traveled from Wisconsin to Visalia in January 2006 with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity with a person he believed to be younger than 15. Brohn also admitted that he was obligated to register as a sex offender in California and Michigan as a result of his 1997 conviction in New Jersey for endangering the welfare of children by possession of child pornography. He admitted that he had resided in California and Michigan without registering as a sex offender.

Brohn has been detained as a flight risk and a danger to the community since his arrest in Michigan on August 25, 2008. He pleaded guilty to the three federal offenses on March 27, 2009.

Brohn was apprehended as part of the Operation Valley Predator II in July and August 2008 during which the Fresno FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force worked with approximately two dozen federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to do compliance checks on registered sex offenders as well as to locate sex offenders who were not registered. The operation resulted in approximately 16 federal criminal convictions for crimes including distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography, using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in criminal sexual conduct, using the Internet to transmit obscene matter to a minor under age 16, and failing to register as a sex offender.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC mobilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.