BOSTON – An Assistant Chief Probation Officer for Lynn District Court was arrested today and charged in federal court in Boston with child exploitation.

Brian Orlandella, 46, of Beverly, was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of transfer of obscene material to a minor. Orlandella appeared in federal court in Boston today and is scheduled for a probable cause hearing on Friday. 

According to the charging document, in May 2018, a mother in Texas contacted the local police about messages she found on her 13-year-old daughter’s cell phone between her daughter and an adult man, later identified as Orlandella. The messages, sent via Kik, revealed conversations in which the man sent the minor images of himself masturbating and directed her to send him naked pictures and videos of her. She told him she was 14-years-old, and he acknowledged that he is much older than she is. 

Authorities were able to trace the suspect’s Kik account’s IP address to Orlandella’s residence in Beverly, Mass., where law enforcement executed a search warrant this morning and seized phones that are now undergoing forensic analysis.

The charge of sexual exploitation of children provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to 30 years in prison, a minimum of five years and up a lifetime of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The charge of transfer of obscene material to a minor provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $150,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne Paruti, Lelling’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator and a member of the Major Crimes Unit, is prosecuting the case.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In 2006, the Department of Justice created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.