From The Tribune staff reports
HUNTSVILLE — On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced a man on child exploitation charges, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp, Jr., and U.S. Marshal Marty Keely.
According to the plea agreement, in October 2021, a report was made to the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department that a 15-year-old girl from Washington, D.C. ran away from home. Through combined investigative efforts between federal and local partners, the child was rescued about a week later, where she was found with Lopez in Birmingham, Alabama. Lopez had taken the child from the Metro D.C. area to Huntsville, Alabama. Lopez had engaged in sexual activity with the child, and videos of such activity were located on his cell phone.
FBI Birmingham’s Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force (CEHTTF), along with FBI Washington Division, U.S. Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Force, Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Leann White prosecuted the case.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.