
Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
The first press release below was issued on Monday, October 24, 2022 by the Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs. The second press release was also issued on Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Former Department of State Employee Pleads Guilty to Engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct in the Philippines
A former U.S. Department of State employee pleaded guilty today to engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.
According to court documents, Dean Edward Cheves, 63, was serving at the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines from 2017 to 2021, during which time he met multiple minors over the internet. From December 2020 to March 2021, Cheves communicated online with a then 15 to 16-year-old Philippine minor, who he paid to produce and send to him sexually explicit images of the minor. Additionally, in February 2021, Cheves engaged in sex acts on two separate occasions with a second 16-year-old Philippine minor who he met online, using his government-issued cell phone to film himself doing so on at least one of those occasions. The child sex abuse material that Cheves produced and received of these minors were found on devices seized from Cheves’s embassy residence in the Philippines. Cheves knew the ages of both minors at the time he engaged in the conduct.
Cheves is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 20, 2023 and faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison on each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia made the announcement.
The U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Office of Special Investigations investigated the case with valuable assistance provided by the DSS Regional Security Office and the Homeland Security Investigations Attaché’s Office in the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Pomerantz Halper and Zoe Bedell for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.
Judge Sentences South Bay Accountant to Life in Federal Prison for Producing Child Sexual Abuse Material of Filipino Victims
LOS ANGELES – A South Bay man was sentenced today to life without parole in federal prison after he admitted to producing thousands of sexually explicit images and videos of nearly three dozen children, one of whom was exploited over the course of at least two years and performed sex acts online in exchange for money.
Billy Edward Frederick, 52, of Redondo Beach, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who said that “to say his conduct is despicable is an understatement.”
Judge Fischer added that “life in prison adequately reflects the seriousness of the offense” in which Frederick “targeted” victims in a “part of the world where children are known for being sexually exploited.”
Frederick pleaded guilty in September 2021 to two felony offenses: production of child pornography for transportation into the United States and enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
According to court documents, Frederick obtained and stored in his Google accounts various images and videos depicting child sex abuse material. In messages sent to Frederick, several victims call Frederick “master.” Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Frederick exploited “young boys in the Philippines in need of money for food and school.”
Frederick admitted to producing more than 5,000 images and videos of child pornography involving at least 35 different children by requesting these children engage in specified sexually explicit activity in exchange for money. Some of the videos and images depicted minor victims under the age of 12 being used for sexual acts.
“Using Google chat to bridge their geographical divide, [Frederick], while living in Los Angeles County, exploited numerous boys who lived in the Philippines,” according to the sentencing memorandum. Frederick’s “years-long conversations with these Philippine boys were not coded; they were explicit and lurid – brimming with details regarding what defendant liked, demanded, and expected from his victims, should they wish to be paid.”
In addition to the life sentence, Judge Fischer ordered Frederick to pay $5,000 to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015; $5,000 to the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018, and $8,000 in restitution to one of the victims.
Homeland Security Investigations investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Kathy Yu of the Violent and Organized Crime Section prosecuted this case.