The United States Attorney's Office

MAN WHO ABUSED YOUNG GIRL SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR PRODUCING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

Federal Prison Sentence to Run Consecutively to 16-Year State Prison Term

An Ecuadorian citizen who lived in Los Angeles was sentenced today to 25 years in federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography, a sentence that will run consecutively to a 16-year term the defendant received in state court for sexually abusing a young girl.

Freddy Paz, 46, who lived in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles, was sentenced by United States District Judge John F. Walter, who called Paz a “monster.”

Paz pleaded guilty earlier this year to several federal criminal charges, admitting that he took digital photographs and videos of a young girl as she posed nude and engaged in sex with Paz. The abuse started when the girl was 9 and continued until she was 11. Paz had access to the victim over a two-year period because he often babysat for the victim and her younger brother while their mother was at work.

In 2006, Paz was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and was sentenced to 16 years in state prison. Because Paz made multiple videos and took approximately 1,700 pictures that depicted his on-going sexual abuse of the victim – and because he possessed more than 7,000 pornographic photos of other children – the Justice Department authorized the filing of federal charges in 2007. On May 14, 2009, Paz pleaded guilty to production of child pornography, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

As a result of his guilty pleas, Paz faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 60 years. When Judge Walter issued the 25-year sentence, he specifically said that this would run consecutive to the 16-year term handed down by the state court, meaning that Paz has received a cumulative sentence of 41 years in the state and federal cases.

The case against Paz was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department.

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