James Daniel Arbaugh, Illicit Sexual Conduct, Virginia 2020

A Virginia man has been sentenced to 276 months in prison, to be followed by a life term of supervised release, for traveling from the United States to Haiti and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, authorities announced.

James Daniel Arbaugh, 40, of Stuarts Draft, Virginia, pleaded guilty on February 6 to one count of traveling in foreign commerce from the United States to Haiti in or about 2016 to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a person under the age of 18 before U.S. District Court Judge Elizabeth K. Dillion of the Western District of Virginia.

According to admissions made in connection with his guilty plea, Arbaugh has lived in Haiti for approximately 15 years and has traveled regularly back to the United States during that time. Arbaugh admitted that in 2016, while in Haiti, he engaged in illicit sexual contact with a minor under the age of 12 by touching the minor’s genitals under the minor’s clothing.

The investigation of the case was conducted by HSI and the Harrisonburg Police Department. This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kaylynn Shoop of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeb Terrien of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Virginia.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski called Arbaugh a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ who ‘posed as a selfless missionary when in reality he was exploiting his position to prey on and sexually abuse vulnerable children in one of the most impoverished areas of the world.’ U.S. Attorney Thomas T. Cullen added, ‘The defendant abused his position of trust to prey on vulnerable victims, and their lives will never be the same.’

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.