Orlando, FL - United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the return by a grand jury of an indictment charging Charles Keith Rolfe (60, Heyburn, Idaho) with distribution of child pornography. If convicted, Rolfe faces a mandatory minimum of 5 years, up to a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The indictment also notifies Rolfe that the United States intends to forfeit two cells phones which are alleged to have been used in the commission of his crimes.
According to the indictment and criminal complaint, in the summer of 2013, Rolfe began an online correspondence with an Orlando man. The two men discussed their mutual interest in child pornography and began trading images of child pornography via their cell phones. In October 2013, federal agents arrested the Orlando man for production, distribution, receipt, and possession of child pornography, and took over the man’s online identities. In January 2014, posing as the Orlando man, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations began communicating with Rolfe via a Mobile Messaging Application (MMA). On Feb. 28, 2014, as charged in the indictment, Rolfe sent an undercover agent images of child pornography through the MMA. Rolfe also wrote to the undercover agents about attempting to molest a young child. On April 2, 2014, federal agents arrested Rolfe in Idaho and transported him to the Middle District of Florida.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joseph M. Schuster.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the 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 locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
