A Wisconsin man has pleaded guilty to traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, officials announced.
Roland J. Flath, 72, of Fond du Lac, Wis., pleaded guilty to the charges in federal court in Milwaukee on an exact date not mentioned. According to court documents, Flath traveled to Belize in July 2006 and subsequently sexually molested a minor girl from Belize.
Flath was originally charged by a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of Wisconsin in October 2010. He was arrested by the Guatemalan National Civil Police on February 20, 2011, expelled to the United States and arrested in the United States by ICE agents and the U.S. Marshal Service.
Flath was indicted on March 22, 2011, by a grand jury sitting in the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
As part of the plea agreement, Flath faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
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 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, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Penelope Coblentz of the Eastern District of Wisconsin and Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park of CEOS. Assistance was provided by the Office of International Affairs in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. This case is a result of investigative efforts led by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Milwaukee and the DSS’s Regional Security Office in Belize, CEOS’s High Technology Investigative Unit, and the Belize Police Department.
Related Federal Cases
- Heath-Lowther, Child Sex Trafficking, Wisconsin, 2023 · Iowa
- William C. Wilber IV, Child Sex Offenses, Wisconsin 2017 · Texas
- Robert Hosler, Interstate Child Sex Solicitation, Wisconsin 2018 · Texas
- Mohammad Ali Hemmat, Child Exploitation, Wisconsin 2024 · Florida
- John James Dixon, Child Sex Exploitation, Iowa 2025 · Iowa
Key Facts
- State: Wisconsin
- Category: Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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