Jose Ricardo Gomez, 39, of Manalapan, New Jersey, admitted in federal court to crossing state lines with the intent to sexually abuse minors, pleading guilty November 17, 2021, to one count of interstate travel with intent to engage in a sexual act with a minor. The plea, delivered before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Morris in Bay City, Michigan, marks a grim chapter in a predatory campaign that exploited two underage girls across state lines.
According to court filings, between May and August 2020, Gomez used Snapchat to groom and coerce a 13-year-old and a 14-year-old girl—both Michigan residents—into producing sexually explicit material and engaging in sexual acts. He misrepresented his identity, age, and location to manipulate the victims, ultimately traveling from New Jersey to meet them at a hotel in Houghton Lake, Michigan, where he repeatedly sexually abused both minors.
During the encounters, Gomez supplied alcohol to the victims before assaulting them. Using his iPhone, he recorded multiple videos of the 13-year-old in various states of undress performing sexual acts. These recordings were stored in the memories section of his Snapchat account. The abuse was not isolated—it was systematic, calculated, and preserved digitally for his own gratification and leverage.
Gomez didn’t stop at direct abuse. He distributed explicit images of minor girls exposing their genitals to other Snapchat users and actively solicited more from underage victims. In some cases, he circulated the images back to the minors themselves, using them as tools of coercion. He threatened to expose the content publicly or to friends, family, and classmates if they refused to send additional material—tactics designed to deepen their entrapment.
After his arrest, Gomez attempted to cover his tracks. On the day following his detention, he used the jail’s telephone system to direct an unknown accomplice to destroy evidence tied to the investigation. That individual promptly deleted files stored in Gomez’s iCloud account, including incriminating visual material. The digital purge came too late—federal and local investigators had already secured critical evidence.
The case was jointly investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Roscommon County Sheriff’s Department and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anca Pop. Gomez is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2022. He faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison and a lifetime of registered sex offender status. Acting U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin and Acting Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris of HSI Michigan and Ohio emphasized the coordinated effort to bring predators like Gomez to justice across state lines.
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Key Facts
- State: Michigan
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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