Aberdeen man gets 13 years in prison for coercion of minors
BALTIMORE — An Aberdeen man has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for coercing teenage girls into sexually explicit activity in recent years, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said Friday.
Anthony Gonzalez, 40, was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release after he gets out of prison, federal prosecutors said.
Gonzalez had sexual conversations and activities with three girls, ages 13 to 16, over the span of two years, according to his guilty plea. Prosecutors said the trio communicated with the 40-year-old over social media.
Authorities say Gonzalez referred to one of the girls, a 16-year-old who posed as an 18-year-old, as his girlfriend, discussed getting married and initiated sexual conversations with her.
At one point, Gonzalez asked her to sneak out of her hotel room that she was sharing with her father to meet up with him. He also traveled from his home to meet with her a Harrisburg hotel in June 2018.
The two of them engaged in a sexually explicit activity twice. Gonzalez brought a cell phone with him to take pictures and videos, authorities said.
"Do you always delete our messages from your phone baby?" Gonzalez asked the teen after their encounter, authorities said.
Somewhere between 2017 and 2018, Gonzalez had a romantic online relationship with a 13-year-old girl that led to sexual conversations, authorities said. He convinced her to send him sexually explicit images and discussed meeting in person.
The 13-year-old girl started declining Gonzalez's advances and blocking him from contacting her multiple times. She was eventually contacted by a mutual friend who encouraged her to communicate with him, authorities said.
A third teen began interacting with Gonzalez in 2018 when she was 15 years old. Gonzalez told her that they were "boyfriend and girlfriend" and convinced her to send him sexually explicit images, according to the plea deal.
The 15-year-old girl sent Gonzalez over 500 messages containing sexually explicit material at his request, state officials said.
During their investigation into Gonzalez's crimes, federal investigators raided Gonzalez's home in January 2019. They seized two tablets, three cell phones and a SIM card.
In an interview with investigators, Gonzalez acknowledged engaging in sexual activity with the 16-year-old and that he had saved recordings of their activities.
Gonzalez also admitted that he knew the 13-year-old girl during their conversations and had four sexually explicit images of her, authorities said.
The case against Gonzalez is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006.