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California man sentenced for coercion of sexual activity from minor

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Stephen Chang, age 29, of Los Angeles, Califo...
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HARRISBURG, Pa. — The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Stephen Chang, age 29, of Los Angeles, California, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Yvette Kane to 262 months’ imprisonment for travel with intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct (3 counts) and coercion of sexual activity from a minor (2 counts).

According to United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, Chang began communicating with a minor female when she was only 13 years old. The communications began in August 2014, and continued until the day of his arrest at the Harrisburg International Airport on March 5, 2016. During these conversations, Chang enticed the juvenile to produce and send sexual exploitative images. Chang also traveled from Los Angeles, California to Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania on December 12, 2014, October 1, 2015, and March 4, 2016, to engage in sexual conduct with the minor. On January 29, 2016, police were notified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in a CyberTipline report about Facebook communications between the minor residing in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and an adult male in California, later identified as Stephen Chang. Law enforcement also learned that Chang engaged in sexual conduct with a second victim in Bakersfield, California.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office, the Elizabethtown Police Department, the Northwest Regional Police Department, the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office and the Harrisburg International Airport Police and demonstrates an excellent collaborative investigative effort to remove dangerous sexual predators from the street and protect the communities’ children. Assistant United States Attorney Daryl F. Bloom prosecuted the case.

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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 http://www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

Source: United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, Middle District of Pennsylvania

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