Orlando, Florida –United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that a federal jury has found Rafael Antonio Bracero-Navas (50, Kissimmee) guilty of seven counts of sexually exploiting a minor child. Bracero-Navas faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison on each count and will be required to register as a sex offender. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 1, 2022. Bracero-Navas had been indicted on August 4, 2021.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, between approximately July 2018 and April 2021, Bracero-Navas used a minor child to produce pornographic pictures that depicted the lascivious exhibition of the child’s pubic area. He did so surreptitiously from outside a bathroom door, taking pictures using a cellphone camera pointed through the crack under the door as the child was stepping out of the shower. Although Bracero-Navas later deleted the full-sized images from his phone, thumbnail images remained and were later discovered by law enforcement.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Emily C. L. Chang and Amanda S. Daniels.
This is another case 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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.