Connecticut Sex Offender Who Preyed On Hudson Valley Kids Facing Federal Charges: DOJ

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — A sexual predator who targeted a Hudson Valley child is now facing federal felony charges.

David X. Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Jeff Grimming, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New England, announced that 23-year-old Marcos Francisci Javier Gomez, of Norwalk, has been charged in a federal criminal complaint with multiple child exploitation offenses.

On April 3, 2024, Gomez was arrested by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office after he had traveled to New York to meet with a 13-year-old girl with whom Gomez had engaged in sexually explicit communications via text messages, FaceTime, and other social media sites, according to the allegations in court documents.

Later searches of Gomez's cellphone revealed evidence that Gomez had been communicating with at least five minor girls in Connecticut, had recorded himself engaging in sexual activity with four of these minor victims, had requested that the minor victims send him videos depicting them engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and had sent obscene images of himself to at least one of the minor victims, prosecutors said.

Gomez typically met his minor victims through Snapchat, according to the complaint.

The complaint charges Gomez with production of child pornography, an offense that carries 15 years to life in prison; receipt or attempted receipt of child pornography, an offense that carries five years to 20 years in prison; possession or attempted possession of child pornography, an offense that carries up to 20 years in prison; and transfer of obscene materials to a minor, an offense that carries up to 10 years in prison.

Gomez, who has been serving a New York state prison sentence related to his conduct with the 13-year-old minor victim in New York, appeared Thursday before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Hartford and was ordered detained.

This investigation is being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, the Putnam County Sherrif's Office, the Norwalk Police Department, the Bridgeport Police Department, the Watertown Police Department, and the Waterbury Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel E. Cummings.

Sullivan thanked the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the State's Attorney for the Judicial District of Stamford/Norwalk for their assistance in the investigation and prosecution of the case.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. Find more information about Project Safe Childhood, here.

You can report cases of child exploitation, here.