BOSTON – A Boylston man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Worcester to two child pornography charges.
Randy Alan Chaplis, 33,
pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography and one
count of possessing child pornography involving a prepubescent minor and
a minor who had not attained 12 years of age. U.S. District Court Judge
Timothy J. Hillman scheduled sentencing for March 22, 2018. Chaplis
was arrested and charged by criminal complaint on March 16, 2017, and
has been detained since his arrest.
On Feb. 9, 2017, Chaplis
sent two emails to an undercover law enforcement officer that included
dozens of images of child pornography, including prepubescent girls
engaged in sex acts with adult men. In other email communications with
the undercover officer, Chaplis stated that he likes three-to-10 year
olds, and that he has “fun” with his girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter
when her mother is not home. Chaplis emailed graphic descriptions of
the sexual acts he purportedly performed on his girlfriend’s child
starting when the child was two-years-old. He asked whether the
undercover officer intended to have sexual intercourse with the
undercover officer’s infant daughter once she turned three or four.
On March 15, 2017,
federal agents executed a search warrant at Chaplis’ residence and
seized an external hard drive and a desktop computer that included
multiple images of child pornography.
The charging statutes
provide for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, a minimum
of five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of
up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge
based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting United States
Attorney William D. Weinreb; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Office; and Michael
Shea, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations
in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney William
F. Abely of Weinreb’s Worcester Branch Office is prosecuting the case.
The case is brought as
part of Project Safe Childhood. In 2006, the Department of Justice
created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to
protect children from exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’
Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project
Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate,
apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as
identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe
Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.
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