Tioga County Man Charged with Attempted Enticement of a Child

 BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK – Jacob Gorman, age 39, of Waverly, New York, was arrested and charged with attempting to entice a child.  Following his initial appearance in court on Friday, a detention hearing was held today and United States Magistrate Judge Miroslav Lovric ordered that Gorman be detained pending trial.

The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Antoinette T. Bacon and Thomas F. Relford, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). 

The criminal complaint alleges that between August 11, 2020 and August 27, 2020, Gorman exchanged text messages with an undercover FBI agent who was posing as the mother of a 9-year-old girl.  In those messages, Gorman expressed an interest in meeting the child and engaging in sex acts with her.  Gorman negotiated a price he was willing to pay to engage in sex acts with the child and on August 27, 2020, drove to a pre-determined location in Broome County to meet and have sex with the child.  Gorman was then encountered by law enforcement and arrested. The charges in the complaint are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

If convicted, the defendant faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of life, a maximum fine of $250,000, and a term of supervised release of between 5 years and life.  A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors. Gorman would also be required to register as a sex offender.

Anyone who wants to provide law enforcement with information about the defendant should contact the FBI Binghamton office at (607) 778-7240. 

This case is being investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey J. L. Brown as part of Project Safe Childhood. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, Project Safe Childhood is led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.