Nurse arrested in child porn sting operation is sentenced in Southern Illinois
A 38-year-old nurse from Missouri sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison on charges he tried to have sex with a child and transporting child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern Illinois District.
Jason Dominik Tyler Rodriguez, 38, of East Prairie, MO, had been convicted of the charges in November 2021. He was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Benton.
He wa charged after showing up to meet with a man who said he would let strangers have sex with his 8-year-old daughter in Southern Illinois. But the purported father was actually an FBI agent working in a sting operation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Rodriguez chatted on an online dating application for four days and had a conversation with what he thought was a father who was willing to allow strangers to have sex with his daughter for $150, according to court documents and evidence presented during his federal trial.
Rodriguez, in his conversations, indicated his interest in traveling to Marion, Illinois, from St. Louis to meet the father and the juvenile victim to engage in sexual acts with the girl, prosecutors said.
On March 26, 2020, Rodriguez left St. Louis, where he worked as a nurse and arrived at a business in Marion.
He was immediately arrested by police. Agents found $150 in cash on Rodriguez and an unopened bag of candy in his automobile. Rodriguez, according to federal documents, had been told previously that his juvenile victim would expect candy before having sex with him.
The arresting agents also located a cellphone with over 20,000 videos and pictures of child pornography in Rodriguez’s possession.
U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft said in a news release on Thursday, “Federal law enforcement conducts these sting operations so that would-be child molesters are aggressively prosecuted after they take affirmative steps to abuse a child, but before they can do immeasurable damage.”
The FBI Springfield division and U.S. Marshals Service handled the investigation.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
