A Nashua, New Hampshire man entered a guilty plea admitting that he possessed videos of himself masturbating while standing over a sleeping 5-year-old girl, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Michael Dukette, who turned 31 years old in March, entered the guilty plea Tuesday to possessing child pornography. The plea was entered days after the government filed a plea agreement in the case, which revealed the defendant stipulated and agreed that if there were a trial the government would prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt by introducing evidence of him masturbating as a child slept.
Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire said that police in New Hampshire first learned of Dukette’s offenses in the summer of 2018, when a woman identified as the mother of one of the defendant’s ex-girlfriends “explained that she had lent an iPhone to her daughter, who had recently returned it.”
“On the phone, the woman found an e-mail sent from an address associated with the defendant, her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, to her daughter’s e-mail address. Attached to the e-mail were four videos, each of which showed a man, whom the woman believed to be the defendant, masturbating while standing next to a child sleeping on a bed, wearing only a pull-up or diaper,” the plea agreement said. “The videos were each less than thirty seconds long and appeared to have all been taken on one occasion. The date on all four video files was August 6, 2016.”
Documents said that a Homeland Security Investigations special agent began investigating the case on a referral from local police and interviewed Dukette’s ex-girlfriend in October 2018:
Hudson Police subsequently referred the case to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and, in October 2018, an HSI special agent interviewed the daughter of the woman who had discovered the videos. She denied having seen the videos, but when the agent played them for her, she identified the man in the videos as the defendant and suggested that the child was the daughter of a second ex-girlfriend of the defendant. On November 9, 2018, the defendant came to the Nashua Police Department (Nashua PD) of his own accord and asked to speak with the police about the videos at issue. The defendant waived his Miranda rights and in the subsequent, recorded voluntary interview, he admitted that he had made the videos.
Prosecutors said that Dukette admitted after being read his Miranda rights that the victim was the 5-year-old daughter of a different ex-girlfriend, and that the videos were from January 2015 or 2016.
“The defendant said that, in either January 2015 or January 2016, he had entered an internet chat room and begun chatting with an unknown man, who started discussing child pornography,” the plea agreement continued. “While in conversation with the unknown man, the defendant entered Child’s 1 bedroom and used his cell phone to film himself masturbating while standing over Child 1, focusing on her and making sure to include her in the video.”
“The defendant also stated that he had dated the first ex-girlfriend through part of 2016, and that during their relationship, she had looked through his phone, found the videos on the Google Drive associated with his e-mail account, and e-mailed them to herself to use against him,” the documents added.
Prosecutors said the victim’s mother confirmed her daughter was in the videos.
According to the DOJ, the Nashua Police Department interviewed Dukette on two occasions in November 2018, which is the same month he was arrested.
Nashua Police announced that arrest on Nov. 20, 2018:
On November 17, 2018 at approximately 10:13 p.m., members of the Nashua Police Department’s Detective Bureau, Special Investigations Division, arrested Michael Dukette, 27, of Manchester, New Hampshire on an arrest warrant for Manufacture of Child Sexual Abuse Images, a Special Class Felony.
On November 9, 2018 the Nashua Police Department learned Michael Dukette had manufactured a video which contained child sexual abuse images. Detectives from the Special Investigations Division furthered the investigation and located the video. On November 17, 2018 detectives applied for and were granted an arrest warrant for Dukette.
Dukette’s felony charge is punishable by up to a maximum of 30 years in prison, exclusive of fines. Dukette was released on Personal Recognizance bail after his arraignment on November 19, 2018 in Hillsborough Superior Court South.
The plea agreement noted that Dukette faces up to 20 years in prison for violating 18 USC § 2252(a)(4)(B), and (b)(2), which criminalizes child pornography possession and applies more severe penalties if the victim is younger than 12:
Whoever violates, or attempts or conspires to violate, paragraph (4) of subsection (a) shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both, but if any visual depiction involved in the offense involved a prepubescent minor or a minor who had not attained 12 years of age, such person shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or if such person has a prior conviction under this chapter, chapter 71, chapter 109A, or chapter 117, or under section 920 of title 10 (article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice), or under the laws of any State relating to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward, or the production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment, or transportation of child pornography, such person shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not less than 10 years nor more than 20 years.
U.S. District Judge Joseph N. Laplante is scheduled to Dukette at 10 a.m. on Aug. 23.
Read the plea agreement below:
[Image via Nashua Police Department]
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