A Hillsboro resident, Jorge Rosales, 29, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of sexual exploitation of a child and cyberstalking. The sentencing took place on Thursday afternoon in Portland.
Court documents indicate that Rosales met a young child living outside the United States through Musical.ly, an online social media application that later became TikTok. He persuaded the child to send sexually explicit images and videos. After receiving the files, he threatened to share them with the child's family and friends unless more were sent. Rosales continued to stalk and harass the child online for several months using multiple accounts on platforms including TikTok and Snapchat.
A search warrant executed by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) at Rosales’s home led to the seizure of electronic devices containing a cache of child pornography, including videos involving the exploited child. The investigation also uncovered some of the social media accounts used by Rosales in his activities.
The investigation was conducted by HSI with support from law enforcement in the child's country of residence as well as the Hillsboro Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Gary Sussman, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.
The prosecution was part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative designed to address child sexual exploitation and abuse by coordinating resources across federal, state, and local agencies. More information about Project Safe Childhood is available at https://www.justice.gov/psc.
