Caruço Law
PLLC
Child Offenses
If there is one type of offense more despised by society than sex offenses, it is offenses against children. To say there is so much at stake, is a dramatic understatement.
The consequences of a conviction are almost too much to bear.
Child offenses are collectively known as child exploitation offenses. In addition to Child Abuse (the intentional infliction of physical or mental injury upon a person under the age of consent), these offenses can also include:
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Possession, production, or distribution of child pornography
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Human (child) trafficking
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Prostitution
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Online inducement of a child for sexual acts
Because of how technology works, child exploitation offenses are commonly charged in BOTH state AND federal court. And courts (Florida, federal, and military courts-martial) are grappling with not only offenses involving children, but also WHAT APPEARS TO BE children.
The penalties are almost too devastating to list. Very lengthy, and very dangerous, prison time. In state or federal (or both) prison. Lifelong registration as a sex offender, affecting where you can work, live, and even whether you can ever drop off or pick up your children from school. Potential civil commitment after release. Financial devastation.
And if you wear the Nation’s uniform, a dishonorable discharge and the likely complete loss of every single VA benefit.
I have unique experience in child exploitation offenses.
For just about a year of the required three years of law school, I worked with a highly specialized unit with the Office of the Florida Attorney General – the Office of Statewide Prosecution. This unit prosecutes complex criminal offenses that occur across multiple counties. It is so aggressive, and experienced, federal law enforcement often brings investigations to it to prosecute rather than United States Attorneys Office.
That was my introduction to these offenses. The unit had an entire floor of a building in downtown Orlando dedicated to proactive investigations into online inducement of a minor for sexual acts. Think, if you are old enough to remember, the To Catch a Predator show hosted on NBC for some time.
It maintained a property in Polk County, perhaps the harshest jurisdiction in the State of Florida. That was where agents would lead its targets.
That was on purpose.
And as soon as you crossed county lines, you were hooked. State and federal charges.
Fast forward to my first military post at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. A baby prosecutor, the Chief was sent to advise some general in an Accident Investigation Board (a plane crashed when it wasn’t supposed to). So, I became the “acting” Chief.
In my first month, active investigations exploded. The local detachment transitioned from “reactive” child exploitation investigations (accidentally come across evidence in a separate investigation) to “proactive” investigations (“To Catch a Predator” stuff). But the Air Force didn’t do that. An investigation plan needed to be developed. That plan, developed at Det 212, became the Air Force plan.
I guided the creation of that plan.
The Air Force, and now its sister services, utilize a plan of investigation I helped create.
To do that, I contacted the Department of Justice. Almost every United States Attorney's Office (USAO) has a prosecutor singularly devoted to specializing in these cases. They are trained at the National Advocacy Center (NAC) in Columbia, South Carolina, through a course called Project SAFE Childhood.
I took the course, and became the most sought after prosecutor to understand how to investigate and prosecute (and how to overcome defenses to) child exploitation cases and the digital forensics involved. Ahead of the judge advocate assigned to the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory (DCFL), who was supposed to be the point person on these cases.
I took that education and experience into defending Airmen accused of child exploitation offenses.
And I continue that today.
Experienced, aggressive, and always professional.