BY: 24/7 CRIME DESK | BocaNewsNow.com
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2024 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — A Colorado dentist who allegedly traveled to Palm Beach International Airport with the intention of meeting a child is set to be arraigned in federal court on Monday. The Dentist, Jason James Atha, was working the child’s mother to set up the meeting. The mother was actually an undercover DHS agent.
The Department of Justice provided this update to BocaNewsNow.com: Jason James Atha, 50, a dentist from Broomfield, Colo., was indicted yesterday in the Southern District of Florida for attempted enticement of a minor and transportation of child pornography.
According to allegations in the court record, to include the indictment and previously filed criminal complaint, beginning on Oct. 3, 2023, Atha used a social networking application on his phone in Colorado to solicit sex with an 8-year-old child through conversations with the child’s mother in the Southern District of Florida. The child’s purported “mother” was in fact an undercover Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent. Atha’s communications detailed the sexual acts he wanted to engage in with the child. On Aug. 9, Atha flew to Palm Beach International Airport, in the Southern District of Florida, to consummate the sexual act and was arrested at the airport. A search of Atha’s devices revealed child pornography videos.
Atha had his initial appearance in West Palm Beach, Fla. on Aug. 12. An arraignment hearing is scheduled for Aug. 26, at 10:00 a.m. before a U. S. Magistrate Judge in West Palm Beach. If convicted of the charged offenses, Atha faces a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison for attempted enticement of a minor and 20 years in prison for transportation of child pornography.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of HSI Miami made the announcement.
HSI West Palm Beach investigated the case. 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.
