Registered Sex Offender Charged by South Florida Federal Grand Jury

Miami, Florida – A South Florida federal grand jury has charged a 41-year-old  Delray Beach man with possessing child pornography and failing to properly register as a sex offender.  Nicholas Deraway appeared today in West Palm Beach federal court for his arraignment.

According to the indictment and an earlier-filed criminal complaint affidavit, in January 2022, Google alerted the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children that one of its users had uploaded child pornography to an account. An investigation into this CyberTip led law enforcement officers to Deraway’s home, where they executed a search warrant and found thousands of images and videos of child pornography, say the charging documents.    

In 2004, Deraway was convicted in the Southern District of Florida for an offense that required him to comply with the ongoing requirements of the federal sex offender registration law. According to the allegations, Deraway used an on-line alias (Nick Meenachan), yet failed to update his sex offender registration information with the associated email addresses.  The name “Nick Meenachan” is linked to the child pornography uploads that led to the January 2022 CyberTip.   

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Robert M. DeWitt, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, and Marshal Gadyaces S. Serralta, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Florida, announced the charges.   

FBI Miami and USMS investigated the case with assistance from the Delray Beach Police Department.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Schiller is prosecuting the case.

An indictment contains mere allegations and defendants are innocent unless and until found guilty in a court of law.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-80135.

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