Miami, Florida – Federal prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida have charged a 38-year-old cruise ship employee from Stuart, Florida with enticing an underage girl he met on the ship into having sex with him and with producing child pornography by recording their sexual interactions.
According to the allegations of the criminal complaint affidavit, Daniel Scott Crow met the victim while he was working aboard a cruise ship. The victim, a 16-year-old girl at the time, was a passenger on the ship, vacationing with her family. After the cruise, Crow remained in contact with the victim and used a messaging application to solicit lewd photographs from her, says the affidavit. It is also alleged that Crow arranged to and later met the victim (who was still under 18) at a hotel, where he engaged in sexual activity with her while recording it. Crow stored the conversations and videos involving the victim on his cellular telephone, according to the charging documents.
Yesterday, Crow made his initial appearance in federal court in Fort Pierce before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek A. Maynard. A detention hearing is scheduled before Judge Maynard for 10:00 a.m. on May 27. If convicted, Crow faces up to life in prison.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, announced the charges.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
If you have information regarding this case, or you believe you or a family member may have been a victim, please contact the HSI tip line at 1-866-347-2423.
HSI Miami’s Fort Pierce office investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Hudock is prosecuting it.
A criminal complaint is merely an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-mj-00048.
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