Lodi man sentenced to 8 years in child porn investigation

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California sentenced Jarod Perdichizzi, 31, of Lodi, to eight years and one month in prison for distribution of child pornography in Sacramento on Tuesday.

Court documents show that Perdichizzi pleaded guilty to the charges on March 7, 2017. He was arrested on July 28, 2016, following an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs enforcement, according to Lt. Sierra Brucia of the Lodi Police Department.

“DHS conducted the investigation, and we assisted with the arrest,” Brucia said.

DHS had been investigating a person in Maine suspected of similar crimes when they discovered that Perdichizzi had been contacting the suspect over a Russian-based photo sharing application, according to Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.

“The Department of Homeland Security was investigating someone in Maine when they found that Jarod Perdichizzi was sending messages over the Kik messaging app to the suspect and passed along that information,” Horwood said.

Perdichizzi contacted an undercover Homeland Security Investigations special agent on June 28, 2016, according to the plea agreement. The agent responded on July 19, 2016, and Perdichizzi asked over the course of eight days for advice on how to engage in a sexual relationship with an underage girl.

Perdichizzi also used his Russian-based email address to send images depicting child pornography to the agent, according to the agreement.

Lodi police officers and federal agents executed a federal search warrant at Perdichizzi’s residence on July 28, 2016, where they found him with his wife and 9-year-old stepdaughter, according to the plea agreement. Law enforcement agents also discovered 88 images and nine videos of child pornography on his laptop computer and thumb drive, some of which depicted minors younger than 12. Horwood added that Perdichizzi will have to serve most, if not all, of his sentence in a federal prison.

“With federal sentencing, they have to serve 85 percent of their sentence. There’s no parole in federal sentencing,” Horwood said.