Massachusetts Assistant Chief Probation Officer convicted of child exploitation offenses

BOSTON – A former Assistant Chief Probation Officer for Lynn District Court was convicted by a federal jury today of child exploitation offenses.

Brian Orlandella, 49, of Beverly, was convicted following a six-day jury trial of one count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of transfer of obscene material to a minor. U.S. Senior District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Aug. 5, 2022. Orlandella was arrested and charged in December 2018 and subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2019.

In May 2018, a mother in Texas contacted local police about messages she found on her 13-year-old daughter’s cell phone between her daughter and an adult man, later identified as Orlandella. In the messages, sent via the Kik mobile application, Orlandella sent the victim images of himself masturbating and directed her to send him sexually explicit pictures and videos of herself. The victim told him she was 14-years-old and he acknowledged that he was much older than she was.

The Kik account’s IP address was traced to Orlandella’s residence. During a search of his residence, two of Orlandella’s phones were seized, one of which contained evidence tying Orlandella to the Kik account that was used to procure sexually explicit imagery from the victim. During an on-site interview at his home, Orlandella admitted that he had used Kik and was the person depicted in the obscene videos recovered from the victim’s phone.

The charge of sexual exploitation of children provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to 30 years in prison, at least five years and up a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of transfer of obscene material to a minor provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $150,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Matthew B. Millhollin, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Port Neches (Texas) Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anne Paruti, Chief of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit and Adam W. Deitch, also of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.