Orlando, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg and FBI Special Agent in Charge David Walker announce that the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office has been presented with a Child Protection Award for its role in investigating more than 100 cases that have resulted in successful federal prosecutions of child exploitation offenses as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative.
For more than 10 years, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with the FBI by providing Task Force Officers and other investigators to work on child exploitation cases. The investigators from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office have served as the lead case agents, undercover officers, and forensic examiners on over 100 child exploitation cases that have been successfully prosecuted in federal court.
“Protecting our children from those who would seek to do them harm is a top priority of the United States Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners,” said United States Attorney Handberg. “For over 10 years, we have had an excellent partner in the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. The investigators with the Sheriff’s Office are skilled and dedicated professionals who are committed to using their lawful authority to protect children from sexual exploitation. It is an incredible achievement for one office to have successfully worked on over 100 successful federal prosecutions. Those prosecutions have served to protect children in Seminole County and across the United States. We look forward to many more successes working together with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office on these important cases.”
“We recognize the value of working alongside Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in recovering child exploitation victims,” said FBI Tampa Division Special Agent in Charge David Walker. “The FBI appreciates our partnership with Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and looks forward to many more years of working together to identify, locate, and recover the innocent victims.”
Some significant cases investigated by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office include:
- United States v. Jonathan and Sarah Aldeta – Jonathan Adleta conspired with his ex-wife, Sarah Adleta, to transport a three-year-old child with the intent of sexually abusing the child. In December 2012, Sarah Adleta flew with the child from Orlando to Oklahoma, where Jonathan Adleta lived. Jonathan Adleta sexually abused the child during the child’s week-long stay at his home. Both before and after the trip, Sarah Adleta also sexually abused the child and sent pictures of the abuse to Jonathan Adleta and others. Sarah Adleta pleaded guilty to producing child sex abuse material. On October 28, 2013, she was sentenced to 54 years in federal prison. After trial, Jonathan Adleta was found guilty of conspiring to transport and transporting a minor in interstate commerce with intent to engage in sexual activity. On June 6, 2014, he was sentenced to life in federal prison.
- United States v. George Adrien Brooks – In September 2015, Brooks initiated online communications with the purported father of a 10-year-old boy about engaging the child in sexual conduct. He then traveled to Seminole County to engage in sexual activity with the child. At that time, Brooks was placed under arrest by an FBI agent who had been communicating with the Brooks in an undercover capacity. During trial, the government presented the above evidence, as well as evidence that 44 years ago Brooks had sexually abused another minor. After trial, the jury found Brooks guilty of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct. On June 27, 2016, he was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison.
- United States v. Lewis Chadwick Walker –Walker spent time in state prison from 2011 to 2013 for possession of child sex abuse material. Following his release from state prison in 2013, he was placed on 20 years of sex offender probation. In 2017, he violated the terms of his probation and was ordered not to access the internet. Walker continued to access the internet and conducted searches for images of child sex abuse material. He then took screenshots of the images of child sex abuse and emailed those to himself. Walker pleaded guilty to transporting child sex abuse material. On February 23, 2022, he was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
These cases were 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.