Samuel T. Henzel, 29, Oak Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, was charged today in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis with child enticement and traveling in interstate commerce with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, announced Joseph H. Hogsett, U.S. Attorney, Southern District of Indiana. This followed an investigation by the Westfield Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Homeland Security Investigations, the Hamilton County Metro Child Exploitation Task Force and the Carmel Police Department.
The Criminal Complaint charging Henzel alleges that on October 30, 2010, Henzel traveled from his home in Illinois to Westfield, Ind., to meet a 12-year old minor female with whom he had been “chatting” on the internet in order to engage in sexual conduct. Following this encounter, the 12 year-old minor female immediately reported to police that she had been sexually assaulted by Henzel.
Henzel was arrested by the Westfield Police Department within minutes of the report. Following Henzel’s arrest, federal and state authorities consulted with one another and determined that Henzel would be charged in federal court. After an initial hearing today in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis before United States Magistrate Judge Kennard P. Foster, Henzel was ordered held pending a detention hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday, November 4, 2010.
“This cooperation and resource-sharing between federal, state and local partners is what makes Project Safe Childhood so powerful,” stated U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett. In the past year alone, local investigations begun in communities around Indiana, including Kokomo, Columbus, Carmel, and Evansville, have led to successful federal prosecutions under Project Safe Childhood.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Brant Cook, who is prosecuting the case for the government, Henzel faces a minimum of 10 years, and up to life, in prison, up to a lifetime term of supervised release, and up to a $250,000 fine if convicted.
Henzel’s arrest is part of the ongoing fight to protect children under Project Safe Childhood. Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims of child exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
A criminal complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.