Orlando, Florida – U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron has sentenced Rodolfo Martinez Rodriguez (61, Windermere) to 25 years in federal prison for receipt, distribution, and possession of child pornography. The Court also imposed a life term of supervised release. He pleaded guilty on September 21, 2016.
According to the plea agreement, Rodriguez, acting under the user name “michael_modeling,” used Instagram to entice children into producing sexually explicit images and videos that he then distributed to other children. Rodriguez engaged in communications with girls as young as 9, while he portrayed himself to be either a male or female between the ages of 10 and 17. Rodriquez admitted that he had engaged in this conduct for a span of two years, and stated that he did not think that asking for and receiving child pornography from children over the Internet caused any harm to the children.
This case was investigated by 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.