Orlando, Florida - U.S. District Judge Carlos E. Mendoza today sentenced Joseph Charles Desorbo, Jr. (58, Seminole County) to 17 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. The court also ordered him to serve a life term of supervision, made a recommendation for a reevaluation prior to his release, and required him to register as a sex offender. In addition, he was ordered to forfeit the cellphone he had used to facilitate the offense.
Desorbo pleaded guilty on Jan. 11, 2018.
According to court documents, on September 8, 2017, deputies from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office arrived at Desorbo’s residence in response to a shooting incident. Desorbo was interviewed as a witness to the shooting and voluntarily provided written consent to search his cellphone as part of the investigation. During a forensic analysis of the phone, agents found 118 videos and 18 images of child pornography on the phone’s SD card. The videos included sadistic depictions of infants and young children being sexually assaulted by adult men. The phone also contained Desorbo’s communications with others regarding the rape of children. Desorbo admitted that he had used a social media application to obtain the child pornography and had participated in sex group chats about “little boys." He also described himself as a sex addict.
The investigation further revealed that Desorbo was convicted in 1998 in St. Johns County, Florida for possessing child pornography and for using the internet to solicit a child for sex.
This case was investigated by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ilianys Rivera Miranda.
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 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, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
