A Navajo Man from Chichilta, New Mexico, Timothy Ignacio Duboise, 28 has been sentence to 10 years in Federal Prison for child sex abuse today.
Press release issued by the District of New Mexico U.S. Attorney General’s office, and made available by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated that Duboise pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child at the Navajo India Reserve.
Upon completion of his prison time, the offender will be “followed by six years of supervised release, for his aggravated child sexual abuse conviction.” In addition, he “will be required to register as a sex offender after he completes his prison sentence.”
According to the criminal complaint filed in Duboise’s case, the FBI initiated a criminal investigation into Duboise after the Navajo Division of Social Service reported an allegation of child sexual assault.
Duboise, who was arrested on July 30, 2012, and has been in federal custody since that time pleaded guilty on February 27, 2013, to an aggravated sexual abuse charge and admitted that, between July 15, 2011 and August 15, 2011, he sexually assaulted a Navajo child by touching the child’s genitals.
The press release indicated that the case was investigated by the Gallup Resident Agency of the FBI and the Crownpoint Office of the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety and with the assistance of the Navajo Division of Social Services. Furthermore, the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob A. Wishard as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.
Meanwhile, the FBI had announced the arrest of 150 pimps and other individuals around the United States on Monday, July 29, 2013. 105 underage victims of prostitution were rescued in an operation, titled Operation Cross Country: Recovering Victims of Child Sex Trafficking.
According to the agency, the operation was carried out in 76 cities with the help of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as part of the Bureau’s Innocence Lost National Initiative. FBI described the operation as the seventh and largest enforcement action to date.
According to the agency, Operation Cross Country is part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative that was created in 2003 by the FBI in partnership with the Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), to address the growing problem of domestic child sex trafficking in the United States.
The program brings state and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service providers from around the country to NCMEC, where the groups are trained together.
“Operation Cross Country demonstrates just how many of America’s children are being sold for sex every day, many on the Internet,” said John Ryan, NCMEC CEO. “We are honored and proud to partner with the FBI, which has taken the lead in tackling this escalating problem” the agency noted.
Ron Hosko, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division stated: “Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across America. This operation serves as a reminder that these abhorrent crimes can happen anywhere and that the FBI remains committed to stopping this cycle of victimization and holding the criminals who profit from this exploitation accountable.”
Since its creation in 2003, the Innocence Lost National Initiative has resulted in the identification and recovery of more than 2,700 children who have been sexually exploited. Behind those numbers are the stories of real victims.
Alex was one such victim. At age 15, faced with a difficult family situation at home, she decided to leave and stay with a girlfriend and then an aunt. When that didn’t work out, she found herself on the street—with an abusive boyfriend who wanted to pimp her out.
“You learn quickly that the only people who are really willing to feed you, clothe you, and shelter you are your parents,” she said. “So I had to figure something out,” Alex said. Watch Alex’s video by following this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aOQhf5zV18M
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.