WHITE PLAINS, NY — Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced today that DAVID OHNMACHT, a registered sex offender, was sentenced to 390 months in prison for enticing a 14-year-old girl via Instagram to engage in sexual conduct and for engaging in this criminal conduct while a registered sex offender. OHNMACT manipulated the girl into taking sexually-explicit images of herself and sending them to him online. OHNMACHT pled guilty on September 3, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Nelson Roman, who imposed today’s sentence.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman stated: “This case underlines the urgent need for law enforcement to continue its efforts to protect children from those who prey on them. As today’s sentencing demonstrates, we will use every tool available to law enforcement to prosecute and punish those who sexually exploit children.”
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in related court proceedings:
On August 19, 2003, OHNMACHT was convicted in Westchester County Court of multiple sexual abuse and sexual assault charges including Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree, Possessing an Obscene Sexual Performance by a Child less than 16 years old, Rape in the First Degree, Use of a Child less than 17 years of age in a Sexual Performance, and Sexual Abuse in the First Degree. As a result of these convictions, OHNMACHT was sentenced to a term of 40 months to 10 years in prison. After serving approximately nine years in prison, OHNMACHT was released on November 1, 2011. He then began a five-year term of post-release supervision with New York State Parole that ended on November 1, 2016.
From November 2016 through February 2017, OHNMACHT communicated online with a 14-year-old girl (“Victim-1”) using two different Instagram accounts. OHNMACHT purported to be a 19-year-old male on one of the Instagram accounts and a teenage girl on the other account. OHNMACHT manipulated Victim-1 into taking and transmitting sexually-explicit images of Victim-1 to OHNMACHT. OHNMACHT told Victim-1 that if she did not make and transmit additional images, he would expose Victim-1’s prior images to her friends on Instagram.
In addition to the prison term, OHNMACHT, 37, of Katonah, New York, was sentenced to 10 years of supervised release.
Mr. Berman praised the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the Bedford Police Department in connection with this investigation.
The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant United States Attorney Marcia S. Cohen is in charge of the prosecution.