FORMER HIGH SCHOOL COACH PLEADS GUILTY TO 20-COUNT CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION INDICTMENT

St. Thomas, VI – United States Attorney Delia L. Smith announced today that Alfredo Bruce Smith, 53, of St. Thomas, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller to all counts of a federal indictment charging both federal and territorial child sexual exploitation offenses. At sentencing, Smith faces a maximum sentence of 35 years imprisonment and a minimum sentence of 30 years imprisonment. Smith also faces a maximum fine of $250,000.00, and a lifetime of supervised release.

According to court documents, Smith was employed as a Hall Monitor and Track and Field Coach at the Charlotte Amalie High School (“CAHS”) from 2006 to 2021. During his tenure, Smith sexually abused and exploited numerous minor male students that were attending CAHS. The sexual abuse was revealed in March 2019 after a minor male student reported that Smith sexual assaulted him while he attended a track and field competition in Puerto Rico. Also revealed in the report were names of other minor male students sexually assaulted by Smith. Thereafter, several of the minor male victims confirmed that Smith sexually assaulted them while they were students attending CAHS. The minor male victims stated that Smith engaged them in sexual intercourse and sodomy both on and off CAHS’ campus. Smith also showed the minor male victims pornographic images and videos of other minor male students which were stored in Smith’s cellular phone.

On August 11, 2021, federal agents executed a search warrant on Smith’s Google and Facebook accounts which revealed a large quantity of sexually explicit materials depicting numerous identifiable minors engaged in sexual activities with Smith. On September 1, 2021, Smith was arrested, and additional search warrants were executed on his home and on areas of the CAHS campus that were identified from images stored in Smith’s cell phone. From the search, federal agents seized Smith’s laptop, a camcorder and five cellular phones which contained an even larger quantity of pornographic images of minor male victims.

The investigation further revealed that Smith engaged in a myriad of sexual acts with each male minor victim. Smith used his position as Hall Monitor and Track Coach to entice minor male students to engage in anal and oral sexual intercourse in classrooms and offices on CAHS’ campus during and after school hours. Smith also used CAHS’ school van to transport minor male students to various beaches in St. Thomas where Smith engaged in anal and oral sexual intercourse with the minor male students. Smith used his cellular phones and a CAHS camcorder to record his sexual abuse of the minor male victims.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Everard E. Potter and Natasha Baker.