Four Southern California men face federal child sexual exploitation charges alleging victimization of minors, officials said Monday.
In cases filed in Los Angeles in recent weeks, the men have been accused of exploiting children in person and online.
“Protecting our children from sexual exploitation is one of the most important things my office does,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estarada said in a statement.
“For years we have vigorously pursued child sexual predators, and we have only intensified these efforts lately. To those who would seek to victimize our young people, let me be clear: we will use every tool in our arsenal to bring you to justice and prevent you from causing further irreparable harm to others.”
The defendants facing charges in federal court in Los Angeles are:
- Ivan Lozano, 36, of Long Beach, charged with enticing a minor victim to commit sexual acts and possess child pornography. Over nearly two years, from when the victim was 14 years old, Lozano allegedly encouraged and seduced a girl living in Tanzania to repeatedly send sexual photos and videos using social media WhatsApp. In October 2021, according to the complaint report, Lozano traveled to Tanzania for the purpose of having sex with the girl, which he videotaped. Lozano is currently a wanted fugitive from the FBI.
- Dustan David Sheehan, 45, of Hollywood, who turned himself in on Friday after being named in a criminal complaint accusing him of distributing child pornography and possessing and accessing with intent to view child pornography . During an August 2020 conversation with an undercover officer on internet messaging platform Kik, Sheehan allegedly discussed his desire to meet and sexually abuse the undercover officer’s fictional 9-year-old daughter. Sheehan was also accused of sharing sexually explicit images with the undercover officer. In a subsequent search of Sheehan’s residence, FBI investigators identified approximately 2,919 child sexual abuse images and 21 similar videos on Sheehan’s digital devices, prosecutors said. In his first court appearance on Friday;
- Nathan Kicyla, 39, from Van Nuys, has been charged with coercing a 10-year-old boy he found online into engaging in sexually explicit conduct. An indictment charges Kicyla with sexually exploiting a child for the purpose of producing a sexually explicit visual representation, inducing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, and committing a crime involving a minor. If convicted, he would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in federal prison. He is currently in federal custody on probation for a rape stemming from a 2007 conviction for sexual exploitation of minors in the Eastern District of California.
- Ian Nathanial Johnson, 36, of Santa Clarita, was arrested on Friday after prosecutors filed a criminal complaint charging him with distributing and possessing child pornography. The investigation into Johnson was launched after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received information that Johnson had uploaded child pornography to a Dropbox account, prosecutors said. During a search, officers seized Johnson’s digital devices and discovered more than 200 images of child pornography and Telegram chats, several of which included images of preteens and children in captivity, according to statements under oath. Johnson is scheduled to make his opening appearance Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles.
In a recent case, Francisco Anthony Dorame, 41, of Echo Park, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Wednesday for using an internet messaging app last year to attempt to sex traffic two boys, aged 7 and 9, and for distributing sexually explicit material. pictures of children. Dorame was also sentenced to life probation and ordered to pay $33,000 in restitution to 11 victims. Dorame pleaded guilty to one count of attempted sex trafficking of a child under 14 and one count of distributing child pornography.
The actor was arrested at his home where he lived with five women.
In February, two men found guilty by a jury of receiving and possessing videos of sexual assaults on severely disabled children were sentenced to long prison terms. Miguel Bocardo, 23, of Baldwin Park, was sentenced by a federal judge in Santa Ana to 18 years in federal prison. Cyr Dino Banguguilan, 36, from Azusa, was sentenced to 12 years.
His co-defendant, Steve Rodriguez, 38, of Pomona, was charged with systematically raping at least three disabled children over the years while working as a certified nursing assistant at a group home. Rodríguez filmed these repeated attacks and sent some of these child pornography films to others, including Bocardo and Banguguilan, prosecutors say.
Rodríguez pleaded guilty to eight counts of child exploitation and was sentenced in January to federal life in prison.