Boca Raton Man Used Messenger Applications to Produce Child Pornography of Toddler and Other Minors

 Miami, Florida – A Boca Raton man pleaded guilty today in West Palm Beach federal court to producing, distributing, and possessing child sexual abuse material.

As part of his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, Robert Solove, 29, admitted to using social networking applications on his phone to communicate with children and to solicit and distribute child sexual abuse material. Solove admitted during the hearing that he created illegal photos and videos of an 18-month-old child in his care and shared them in his smartphone social networking application’s chat rooms and with other individuals. Solove also developed an online relationship with a middle school-aged girl in a different state. He directed the middle schooler to take pornographic photographs and videos of herself and send them to Solove through a second smartphone application. In addition, Solove admitted during the hearing that he acquired sexual abuse material of other children from several internet platforms and stored them on his cellular telephone. 

Solove’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 20, 2021 at 10am before U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks.  Solove faces up to 120 years in federal prison, plus payment of restitution to his victims.

Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

HSI Miami investigated the case, with assistance from Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Schiller is prosecuting it.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov or https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/project-safe-childhood.