29-year-old Joel L. Organista has been sentenced to 180 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to two felonies involving the production and distribution of child pornography. The sentence will run concurrently with a sentence handed down in State Court, based on the same crimes. In addition, Organista will be required to register as a sex offender and will serve a lifetime of supervised release.
An investigation by the Utah Attorney General’s Office ICAC Task force uncovered a Dropbox account which was used to download dozens of images of minors. Organista also admitted to using Snbapchat to make contact with minor children and soliciting them to perform sexual acts via video chat. That includes a 13 year old boy who said performed sexaul acts for Organista online.
ICAC began investigating the case in January 2021, after receiving tips that Organista had been downloading the images involving child pornography. He was arrested in June, 2021 and has been in custody since then.
Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Utah Attorney General’s Office and Assistant United States Attorney’s office prosecuted the case.
###
