Bay Area man sentenced more than 7 years for sexual coercion of a minor over the Internet

OAKLAND, Calif. — A Newark, California, man was sentenced Thursday to 92 months in prison on federal child pornography charges, following a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Jesse Yang, 25, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Judge Gonzalez Rogers also sentenced Yang to 10 years of supervised release.

According to court documents and information presented at court, on Nov. 16, 2011, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received a telephone call from a man who reported he found his 14-year-old daughter partially dressed in front of a computer and webcam at their home. During the investigation, the victim's father provided the laptop computer to officers. The computer was open to a Skype chat window between the victim and Yang, identifying himself online as "J." The chat window contained text messages back and forth with Yang instructing the victim to remove her clothing and open her legs in front of the computer. Yang continued to suggest to the victim that she engage in sexual acts in front of the webcam.

Yang met the victim through momegl .com, a website designed to allow users to anonymously chat with strangers. In order to entice his minor victim to undress and perform sexual acts, Yang, posing as a 15-year-old boy, told the victim how beautiful he thought she was and encouraged her to play sexually explicit games while in front of the webcam, during which she would receive points for following instructions suggested by Yang while online. Yang provided the victim instructions on how to set up her webcam.

Through Yang's email address, which he provided to the victim, law enforcement officers were able to ascertain his computer's Internet protocol address and identify him as Jesse Yang.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Randy Luskey and Rodney Villazor of the Northern District of California.