A 37-year-old man pleaded guilty to trading child pornographic pictures with a District detective and offering to arrange a sex trip to Colombia for the detective from his trailer in a Los Angeles suburb, federal prosecutors said.
Rafael Giraldo faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced Sept. 10. He pleaded guilty to transporting and possessing child pornography Tuesday.
In August 2007, District Detective Timothy Palchak was undercover in an Internet child porn chat room when he posted a message asking whether anyone had access to a child, court documents filed in the District¹s federal court said. A man Palchak and other investigators later learned was Giraldo responded.
Giraldo told Palchak that he lived in California but was originally from Colombia. Giraldo then said he had connections with a madam in the South American country who could provide children under the age of 10 for sex in exchange for cash, Giraldo admitted. He said he could arrange the sex trip if Palchak paid him and for Giraldo¹s plane ticket to Colombia.
As they chatted, Giraldo e-mailed Palchak six images of child pornography and a movie clip, documents said. He then gave Palchak a phone number to call to arrange the South American trip, and the two later discussed details over the phone.
Meanwhile, an FBI agent obtained computer records and linked Giraldo’s e-mail account to his home in Chino, Calif., court documents show.
In December, Palchak and the FBI agent searched Giraldo¹s one-bedroom trailer, a sworn statement said. Inside were three mattresses and a computer. The computer was positioned so that if there were other people in the room, their view of the screen would be blocked by the user’s body.
When law enforcement agents searched the computer, they found 1,000 images of child pornography and several videos of men having sex with children, prosecutors said. Also on the computer were documents indicating Giraldo worked for a Florida-based private investigative company, the sworn statement said.
According to court records, Giraldo¹s attorneys repeatedly argued to have the case thrown out following Giraldo¹s January 2008 arrest in California, and the case appeared to be moving toward trial. But instead, the defense dropped those plans and entered the guilty plea.
