Defendant Prosecuted under Project Safe Childhood
ALBUQUERQUE - Glenroy Heywood, 55, of Albuquerque, N.M., pleaded guilty late yesterday afternoon in federal court to obstructing the enforcement of the child sex trafficking laws announced U.S. Attorney John C. Anderson, Acting Special Agent in Charge Jack P. Staton of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in El Paso, and Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales, III.
Heywood, a physician with a general surgery subspecialty, was arrested on Aug. 30, 2017, on an indictment charging him with attempting to recruit or entice a minor to engage in a commercial sex act in Bernalillo County, N.M., on Feb. 8, 2017. Heywood’s medical license has been suspended as the result of the charges in this case.
During yesterday’s change of plea hearing, Heywood pled guilty to a felony information charging him with obstructing, and attempting to obstruct, the enforcement of the federal child sex trafficking statute. In entering the guilty plea, Heywood admitted arranging to meet a person whom he believed to be a 15-year-old female at an Albuquerque-area hotel for the purposed of engaging in a commercial sex act on Feb. 8, 2017. Heywood acknowledged that shortly after he entered the hotel room, law enforcement officers arrested him as he attempted to evade arrest by fleeing out of the room.
At sentencing, Heywood faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. Heywood also will be required to register as a sex offender. A sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Letitia C. Simms is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s 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 exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.
The case also was brought as a part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force’s mission, which is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico. There are 86 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies associated with the New Mexico ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office. Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
