Ex-US Embassy in PH exec pleads guilty of engaging sexual activity with minors
US Embassy in Manila. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — A former officer of the US embassy in the Philippines pleaded guilty in engaging an illicit sexual conduct with minors from 2020 to 2021.
According to the US Department of Justice in a statement, Dean Edward Cheves, 63, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 20, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison.
He served in the US embassy in the Philippines from 2017 to 2021.
During this period, Cheves engaged in sexual acts with a second 16-year-old minor who he met online on two separate occasions in the Philippines. He also used his government-issued phone to film himself doing so on at least one of those occasions.
The department said that 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.
It also said that Cheves knew the ages of both minors at the time he engaged in the conduct.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
On Oct. 26, the Pasay City Regional Trial Court ordered the arrest Cheves for engaging in sexual activity with a 16-year old Filipino.
He faced charges for violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Child Abuse Law.
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