Massachusetts Man Sentenced to 136 Months for Attempted Online Enticement of a Minor

ALBANY, NEW YORK - Joseph Defilippi, age 55, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, was sentenced today to 136 months in prison, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release, for attempted online enticement of a minor.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and James N. Hendricks, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As part of his guilty plea in June 2019, Defilippi admitted that between about February 2018 and August 10, 2018, he exchanged multiple online communications with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year old boy.  Defilippi further admitted that his online communications were intended to persuade, induce, entice and coerce the boy into meeting with him for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts, and that on the morning of August 10, 2018, he traveled to a park in Menands, New York, in an effort to meet the child.

In sentencing Defilippi, Senior United States District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy specifically found that Defilippi had previously engaged in a pattern of activity involving prohibited sexual conduct, which included Defilippi’s having sexual contact with at least one boy. 

This case was investigated by the FBI and its Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the Colonie Police Department.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rick Belliss and Joshua R. Rosenthal.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood.  Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.