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Foreign Service Member Charged with Child Abuse
A shocking case of child abuse has come to light as a US Foreign Service member has been charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in the Philippines and possessing child pornography.
According to court documents, Dean Cheves, 61, a member of the US Foreign Service serving at the US Embassy in the Philippines between September 2020 and February 2021, allegedly met a 16-year-old online and engaged in sexual activity with the minor on two occasions.
The videos of the sex acts were produced on Cheves’s cell phone and were later found on his devices seized from his embassy residence while in the Philippines. The indictment also alleges that between February 2021 and March 2021, Cheves possessed child pornography.
Cheves is charged with one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and one count of possessing child pornography in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or on lands owned or leased by the United States.
If convicted, Cheves faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison on count one, and up to 10 years in prison on count two. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case is being investigated by the Diplomatic Security Service, Office of Special Investigations, and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant US Attorney Lauren Pomerantz Halper of the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the government to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Key Facts
- State: Virginia
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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