Tucumcari man facing federal child exploitation charges

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and Raul Bujanda, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, announced that Joseph Wayne Gadman was charged with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. Gadman, 40, of Tucumcari, New Mexico, appeared in federal court on Jan. 19 for a detention hearing and will remain in custody pending trial, which has not been scheduled.

According to a criminal complaint, on Jan. 4, Gadman allegedly used a foreign fetish website called Fetlife to contact a user who, unbeknownst to Gadman, was an undercover agent of the FBI. Under the username Gadmanj40, Gadman allegedly indicated that he was interested in the undercover agent’s interests. Believing that the user with whom he was communicating had children, Gadman allegedly arranged to meet the undercover agent’s “family” for the purposes of engaging in sexual acts with two minors – a 12-year-old and an 8-year-old. On Jan. 13, Gadman travelled from Tucumcari to Albuquerque, where he was arrested. At the time of his arrest, Gadman was in possession of $60 to pay the “mother,” as arranged, and had KitKat bars and condoms in his vehicle for the “children.”

A complaint is only an allegation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, Gadman faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison.

The FBI Albuquerque Field Office investigated this case as part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The ICAC Task Force Program is a nation-wide network of task forces including over 90 federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies in New Mexico dedicated to investigating, prosecuting and developing effective responses to Internet crimes against children.

Assistant United States Attorney Jaymie L. Roybal is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

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