Orlando, Florida - U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron has sentenced Frank Miles, III (32, Rockledge) to 30 years in federal prison for attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity and for possessing child pornography. The court also ordered Miles to forfeit the electronic devices he had used to commit the offenses, and to pay a $5,000 special assessment.
Miles had pleaded guilty on Sept. 25, 2018.
According to court documents, Miles transported to his online storage accounts at least 69 videos depicting the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12. State law enforcement officers arrested Miles and charged him with possession of child pornography.
While his state case was pending, Miles continued to sexually exploit children, creating a profile on a location-based teen social networking site, and posing as a 17-year-old high school student. There, Miles met someone whom he believed to be a 14-year-old, and arranged to meet her for sex. Unbeknownst to Miles, the 14-year-old was actually a law enforcement officer acting in an undercover capacity.
Miles arranged to meet the “child" at a convenience store, and officers arrested him when he arrived at the location.
During a search of Miles’s phone, officers discovered that Miles, while posing as the teenage high school student, had developed an online relationship with an actual minor. Miles had persuaded the minor to engage in sexual activity and to send him illicit photographs.
“This predator thought he was going to meet a child for sex, but instead he was arrested by undercover law enforcement," said HSI Tampa SAC James C. Spero. “This significant sentencing brings closure to the investigation by HSI special agents and our Brevard County Sheriff’s Office partners."
“This case is another example of our successful partnership with HSI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office taking a very dangerous sexual predator out of the community and putting him behind bars, where he can never harm a child again," stated Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey.
This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Karen L. Gable.
This is another case 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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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
