Orlando, Florida – U.S. District Judge Carlos E. Mendoza has sentenced Carlos A. Rodriguez Fernandez (48, Orlando) to 40 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting a 14-year-old girl and for possessing child pornography. The court also ordered Rodriguez Fernandez to forfeit the electronic devices that he had used to commit the offenses.

A federal jury had found Rodriguez Fernandez guilty on June 14, 2019.

According to court documents and evidence presented during the trial and sentencing hearing, Rodriguez Fernandez hid a webcam in the victim’s bathroom and recorded sexually explicit videos of the child. He also used an online file-sharing program to download and view child pornography. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement Cybercrimes Task Force identified Rodriguez Fernandez after he had shared child pornography through a file-sharing program. 

During the execution of a search warrant at Rodriguez Fernandez’s residence, agents recovered several electronic devices containing 160 images and 6 videos depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of young children and teens. The agents also located a webcam that Rodriguez Fernandez had concealed behind an electrical outlet plate across from the toilet in the 14-year-old’s bathroom. Rodriguez Fernandez ran the camera’s USB cord through the bathroom wall to his office, where he had attached it to his computer. Rodriguez Fernandez recorded and saved the illicit videos of the child on his computer.

This case was investigated by the FDLE Cybercrimes Task Force, whose members include FDLE, Homeland Security Investigations, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the Clermont Police Department, the Kissimmee Police Department and the Altamonte Springs Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Karen L. Gable.

This case was 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.