Month: June 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

            WASHINGTON – Dwayne L. Curtis, Sr., 61, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty today to sexually assaulting an 11-year old girl in January of 2021, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Interim Chief Ashan Benedict, of the Metropolitan Police Department.

            Curtis, Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of first degree child sexual abuse, in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, before the Honorable Michael K. O’Keefe who scheduled sentencing for August 11, 2023.

            Curtis admitted that between January 12 and January 14, 2021, he twice engaged the child in a sex act at his home in Northwest Washington, D.C. As part of his guilty plea, the parties agreed that Curtis should be sentenced to 180 months in prison, with half of that time suspended. They also agreed that, upon his release from prison, he will be on supervised probation for five years, and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The sentence is pending the court’s approval.

            In announcing the plea, U.S. Attorney Graves and Interim Chief Benedict commended the work of those who investigated the case from the Metropolitan Police Department.  They also expressed appreciation for the work of those who handled the case at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Veronica Vaughan; paralegal Garcia Clarke; former paralegal Brenda Williams; and Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter V. Taylor, who prosecuted the matter.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for trafficking four minors in Philadelphia.

According to court documents, from at least February 2016 to 2017, Andre Felts, 35, of Philadelphia, led a prostitution ring and trafficked at least four minors ranging in age from 15 to 17 years old. Felts kept a significant portion of the money paid to the minor victims and he and others, at his direction, posted advertisements on the internet for commercial sex with the minors, provided transportation to and from sexual encounters, and identified locations for commercial sex acts to occur. His co-defendants, Ryan Keel and Kevin Francis, allowed Felts to use their homes for commercial sex encounters with the minors in exchange for a portion of the proceeds. On one occasion, Felts assaulted a minor victim.

Felts was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release.

On May 31, Keel was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. On July 27, 2022, Kevin Francis was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. All three defendants were ordered to jointly pay $235,000 in restitution to the victims as part of their sentences.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Gwendelynn Bills and Jessica Urban of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexandra Lastowski and Priya De Souza for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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.justice.gov/psc.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Yesterday at the Judicial Studies Institute (JSI) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor virtually addressed 22 judges from Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Peru as part of a Department of Justice training program for the judiciaries of the Western Hemisphere. Justice Sotomayor stressed the importance of their contribution to the rule of law in the hemisphere and lauded them for their role in the transformation of Latin American justice.   

With the support of Justice Sotomayor, and in partnership with the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the Justice Department’s Office of Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) launched JSI in 2012 as a response to the wave of justice sector reforms in Latin America that saw many countries transition from an inquisitorial to an adversarial system of justice. Through Spanish instruction, practical exercises, and observations of courtroom proceedings, participating judges learned about evidentiary guidelines, the role of judges, courtroom management in an adversarial justice system, human smuggling, and judging without gender bias, among other important topics. 

This capacity building is critical to the region as there are significant differences between the two judicial system models. For example, in an inquisitorial system, judges investigate charges and determine guilt through written deliberations behind closed doors. In an adversarial system, the judge acts as an impartial referee responsible for weighing evidence and guaranteeing the rights of both the victim and the accused in an open courtroom setting. JSI offers judges practical skills, and JSI alumni become agents of change within their judiciary. Many have been able to impart what they have learned through trainings within their own judiciary system and at OPDAT-sponsored events. 

Since establishing JSI in 2012, OPDAT and its partners at the University of Puerto Rico and Inter-American University law schools, the Puerto Rico State Judiciary, and the U.S. Federal Judiciary have trained over 1,114 Latin American judges.

Please visit www.justice.gov/criminal-opdat for more information about OPDAT’s capacity building efforts around the world.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

            WASHINGTON – Dyrell Muhammad, also known as Dyrell Gamble, 56, of Washington, D.C., was arraigned today on two counts of second degree sexual abuse arising from events that occurred in August 2021, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and Interim Chief Ashan Benedict, of the Metropolitan Police Department.

            On May 25, 2023, Muhammad was indicted by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on two counts of second degree sexual abuse of a patient or client. He faces a maximum of five years on each count if convicted of the charges.

            According to the government’s evidence, in August 2021, Muhammad was working at RAP, Inc., a residential substance use and mental health treatment program located in Washington, D.C.  On or about August 4, 2021, Muhammad approached a program client in an elevator. He grasped the client’s hand and placed her hand on his penis through his clothing.  Muhammad then exposed his penis and placed the client’s hand on his naked, exposed penis.  The indictment also charges that Muhammad sexually abused a second client, on or about August 9, 2021. On August 25, 2022, Muhammad was arrested in connection with this case and was subsequently released pending trial.

            In August 2001, Muhammad was convicted of first degree murder while armed and associated firearms charges for a murder he committed in October 1998. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment totaling 35 years to life. In October 2020, after serving 22 years of that sentence, Muhammad was released by a Superior Court judge, pursuant to the COVID-19 Response Supplemental Emergency Amendment Act of 2020, and placed on five years’ supervised probation.

            An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.

            In announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney Graves and Chief Contee commended the work of those investigating the case from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Sexual Assault Unit.  They acknowledged the efforts of those who are working on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Victim/Witness Advocate Tracey Hawkins; Paralegal Specialists Garcia Clarke, ReShawn Johnson, Cynthia Muhammad, and Michelle Wicker; and Special Agent Sean Ricardi.  Finally, they commended the work of former Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Lee, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Sourbeer, who is investigating and prosecuting the case.