ROCA, DEAUNDRA HERMIONE V.

21st Century Assignment: Latest News

U. S. Foreign Service Member Indicted for Engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct in

the Philippines and Possession of Child Pornography

A former U.S. Department of State employee pleaded guilty today to engaging

in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.

According to court documents, Dean Edward Cheves, 63, was serving at the
U.S. Embassy in the Philippines from 2017 to 2021, during which time he met
multiple minors over the internet. From December 2020 to March 2021, Cheves
communicated online with a then 15 to 16-year-old Philippine minor, who he
paid to produce and send to him sexually explicit images of the minor.
Additionally, in February 2021, Cheves engaged in sex acts on two separate
occasions with a second 16-year-old Philippine minor who he met online,
using his government-issued cell phone to film himself doing so on at least
one of those occasions. The child sex abuse material that Cheves produced
and received of these minors were found on devices seized from Cheves’s
embassy residence in the Philippines. Cheves knew the ages of both minors at
the time he engaged in the conduct.

Cheves is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 20, 2023 and faces a maximum

penalty of up to 30 years in prison on each count. A federal district court judge
will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
and other statutory factors.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s

Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of
Virginia made the announcement.

The U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Office of

Special Investigations investigated the case with valuable assistance provided
by the DSS Regional Security Office and the Homeland Security Investigations
Attaché’s Office in the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Trial Attorney Gwendelynn Bills of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation

and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Pomerantz Halper
and Zoe Bedell for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.

Tina G. Santos, Philippine Daily Inquirer (2022, October 26)

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1684881/ex-us-diplomat-admits-to-sex-crimes-
with-minors-in-ph

Department of Justice. Office of Public Affairs (2021, August 3)

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-foreign-service-member-indicted-engaging-
illicit-sexual-conduct-philippines-and-possession