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Convicted Rapist Pleads Guilty to Coercing a Minor to Engage in Sex

Coerced a 13 Year Old Girl to Have Sex Just After Completing His Sentence and Probation
for Raping Another 13 Year Girl; Also Admitted to Raping a 14 Year Girl

Greenbelt, Maryland - Michael Allen Alper, age 34, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty yesterday to coercing and enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations; Police Chief David M. Rohrer of the Fairfax County, Virginia Police Department; and Chief Teresa Chambers of the U.S. Park Police.

According to the plea agreement, in the fall of 2003 when Alper was 27 years old and living in Virginia, he met two young girls on separate websites on the internet, a 13 year old girl and 14 year old girl, who each lived in Virginia. On separate occasions, Alper caused each victim to sneak out of her house and meet him in his car, which he parked at the end of each victim's street. He had sex with the 13 year old victim in the back seat of his car. That victim reported the rape to her school counselor. Alper was convicted of statutory rape in Fairfax County, Virginia and sentenced to three years in prison, with all but six months suspended, and three years supervised probation. Alper took the 14 year old victim into a nearby woods where he forced her to engage in a sex act. Alper continued to chat with the victim online and met the victim a second time and had sexual intercourse with her.

In February 2010, a month after Alper's probation ended from the 2003 rape conviction, Alper, who was then 33 years old, attended an anime and gaming conference at a hotel in Oxon Hill, Maryland. He met another 13 year old girl (the third victim), introducing himself as Michael Allen and contacted her afterwards on Facebook using that same name. On March 26, 2010, Alper arranged via internet and cell phone for the victim to travel to a train station in Washington, D.C. Alper picked her up and drove her to his home where he engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the victim. Alper and the victim continued to communicate on Facebook. On March 31, 2010, while the victim stayed overnight at a friend's house, Alper contacted the victim via Facebook and convinced the victim to sneak out of her friend's house to meet him. Alper drove the victim to a woods where he engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the victim before returning the victim to her friend's home. The victim later discovered Alper's true identity when a friend found Alper's sex offender registration under his real name.

After Alper's identity as a sex offender was discovered, Alper created another on-line profile in a fictitious name and again contacted the third victim, lying about the charges that led to the sex offender conviction.

As part of his plea agreement, Alper must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

As part of the plea agreement, Alper and the government have agreed that if the Court accepts the plea agreement Alper will be sentenced to between 10 and 14 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus has scheduled sentencing for October 28, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.

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 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 www.projectsafechildhood.gov. Details about Maryland's program are available at www.justice.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the ICE, the Fairfax County, Virginia Police Department and U.S. Park Police for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney LisaMarie Freitas, assigned from the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf, who are prosecuting the case.

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