A district court judge on Tuesday (April 16) convicted an Alexandria man, who worked for the Department of Commerce, of possessing and receiving child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
In a bench trial, Rafferty Daniel Kelly, 40, was found guilty by Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff of one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Kelly worked for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In March 2022, a federal CSAM investigation involving an internet-based peer-to-peer file-sharing service, a program used by the defendant to obtain CSAM, led federal agents to execute a search warrant at Kelly’s home, where they seized multiple devices. A review of those devices revealed that, over at least two years, Kelly had downloaded and stored over 50,000 images of CSAM and child erotica, including images of infants and prepubescent children.
According to court records, Kelly also possessed a handbook on how to groom children.
Trial Attorney Nadia Prinz of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Vanessa Strobbe for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on July 24 and faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison, with a maximum penalty of 40 years.
