Hempstead man sentenced for posting child pornography on Snapchat

A Hempstead man was sentenced Friday in Central Islip to 25 years in prison for posting and sharing more than two dozen sexually explicit videos and child pornographic images on Snapchat, including infants and toddlers, prosecutors said.

Manuel Geovanny Torres Rivas, 27, had pleaded guilty in January to sexual exploitation of a child. As part of the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Gary Brown, Torres Rivas must register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and not have unsupervised contact with minors.

After his arrest, detectives found dozens of videos on Torres Rivas' cellphone of sexual encounters he had with a 9-year-old girl who had been entrusted to his care, prosecutors said. He distributed images from those encounters — including some that were filmed in the presence of the defendant’s 5-year-old son — to strangers, according to a court sentencing memo.

“Today’s sentence removes a dangerous predator and is only possible due to the bravery of two young girls, who came forward to the authorities about the defendant’s disturbing behavior online, which then helped protect the community and end the abuse of another girl,” said Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. 

Gary Schoer, Torres Rivas's Syosset-based defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors contend Torres Rivas targeted multiple underage females on Snapchat, where he engaged them in sexually explicit conversations and sent them unsolicited videos and images of child pornography.

In 2019, Torres Rivas contacted a 13-year-old Connecticut girl that he did not know and detailed his sexual abuse of the 9-year-old and later sent the girl an unsolicited video depicting a child, estimated to be between 8 and 10 years old, engaged in sexual conduct, authorities said.

In June 2020, Torres Rivas uploaded to Snapchat more than two dozen videos and images of child pornography, some containing graphic depictions of child abuse and involving children as young as 1 year old, according to the sentencing memo.

“The extent of Torres Rivas’s crimes is astonishing," said Michael Alfonso, acting special agent-in-charge of the New York office of Homeland Security Investigations. "Not only did he repeatedly reach out to children online, sending them explicit material and using his social media accounts to distribute more child sexual abuse material, he is also a hands-on offender, sexually abusing a child entrusted to his care."

Torres Rivas also used Snapchat to contact an 11-year-old Nevada girl whom he sent sexually explicit photos of himself and made statements about his molestation of the 9-year-old, officials said.

The Connecticut girl reported Rivas to school officials, who then contacted local law enforcement, and the Nevada girl reported him to local law enforcement.

Snapchat reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that approximately 28 videos and images containing child pornography were uploaded to the platform by Torres Rivas.

This is not the first time Torres Rivas has been arrested for allegedly engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct with a female. 

In 2015  Torres Rivas was arrested by Nassau County police for allegedly emailing one of Hempstead High School teachers sexually explicit photos of himself, according to the sentencing memo. 

He was convicted of disorderly conduct and received a four-year conditional discharge — a sentence he was still serving at the time of his most recent arrest.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.