Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that STEVE ROSADO, a registered sex offender, was sentenced today by the Honorable Jed S. Rakoff to 20 years in prison for attempting to entice two minor girls to engage in illegal sexual activity, and for attempting to receive child pornography after having been previously convicted of sex offenses involving minors. ROSADO was arrested in December 2020 and pled guilty to the charges in November 2021.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Steve Rosado tried to – and in some cases, did – prey on the most defenseless members of our community. He attempted to engage in repeated sexual activity with multiple children, some of whom he believed to be as young as 9 years old, even after having been twice before convicted of sex offenses and required to register as a sex offender. Crimes like this can have devastating and lasting effects on minor victims, and I once again thank the FBI and the NYPD for their work in investigating and arresting Rosado before he could harm any others.”
According to public court filings:
On November 29, 2020, an undercover FBI agent (the “UC”), posing as the mother of a 12-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl, initiated a series of conversations with ROSADO, then 41 years old, via an online messaging service. The UC and ROSADO later exchanged telephone numbers, and they proceeded to communicate over the next week via the online messaging service, text message, and lengthy telephone conversations that were recorded by the UC.
In hundreds of text messages, and hours of calls, ROSADO repeatedly expressed, in graphic and unambiguous terms, his desire to engage in repeated sexual activity with both children – including both oral and vaginal sex – as part of their “new routine together.” To help alleviate any concerns the UC might have regarding ROSADO having sexual relations with her young children, ROSADO provided the UC with his recent test results for COVID-19 and HIV, and he discussed what he and the UC could do if he were to impregnate one of the children.
The UC and ROSADO arranged to meet at a bar in Manhattan on the evening of December 7, 2020, with the understanding that they would return to the UC’s apartment afterward and ROSADO would then engage in sexual activity with the children. On the evening in question, ROSADO met the UC at the agreed-upon location. After the two of them left the bar and began walking toward the UC’s purported apartment, law enforcement arrested ROSADO. ROSADO was at the time in possession of gifts for the children – including dolls and a stuffed animal – and an overnight bag containing, among other things, lubricant.
That same day, law enforcement seized multiple electronic devices belonging to ROSADO. Subsequent searches of those devices by law enforcement, pursuant to search warrants, revealed that ROSADO had for weeks been communicating online with several other individuals who purported to be minors – some purporting to be as young as 13 years old – in an ongoing effort not only to receive child pornography, but also to persuade the young victims to move to New York to live with him, so that he could engage in sexual activity with them, impregnate them, and eventually engage in sexual activity with their future children. ROSADO’s electronic devices further revealed that during this same period, ROSADO was engaged in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female victim.
At the time he committed the aforementioned offenses, ROSADO was a registered sex offender, having twice before been convicted of sex offenses involving minors. In 2004, ROSADO was convicted of possessing a sexual performance by a child, in violation of New York State Penal Law § 263.16; and in 2005, ROSADO was convicted of four counts of rape in the second degree, in violation of New York State Penal Law § 130.30(1), four counts of rape in the third degree, in violation of New York State Penal Law § 130.25(2), and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, in violation of New York State Penal Law § 260.10(1). The 2004 conviction arose out of ROSADO’s stalking and attempted kidnapping of a 13-year-old female victim he met online, and the 2005 conviction arose out of ROSADO’s having had sexual intercourse approximately 24 times with a 14-year-old female victim. As a result of his prior convictions, ROSADO was incarcerated from December 2005 to October 2013.
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In addition to his prison term, ROSADO, 42, of the Bronx, New York, was sentenced to lifetime supervised release.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI-NYPD Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.
This case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Jonathan L. Bodansky, Jane Y. Chong, and Elinor L. Tarlow are in charge of the prosecution.