A Jacksonville man has been sentenced to over a decade in prison after attempting to engage in sexual activity with a minor. Amol Chandrashekhar Khedkar, a 59-year-old technology architect, received a 12-year and 6-month federal prison term for utilizing his cellphone and the internet to attempt to entice an 11-year-old child. The details, released by the Department of Justice, revealed that Khedkar will also serve a 10-year term of supervised release and is required to register as a sex offender following his imprisonment. Khedkar's sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan comes after a guilty plea entered on August 13, 2024.
According to the Department of Justice report, an undercover FBI operation was in place to identify and catch adults seeking to illicitly engage with minors. An undercover agent, posing as a parent of an 11-year-old, posted a notice in a chat room which Khedkar responded to minutes later. Despite being informed of the child’s age, he proceeded to ask to unequivocally question the agent about the child's sexual experience and availability.
The case crescendoed on November 29, 2023, when Khedkar and the undercover agent arranged a meeting in St. Johns County. Upon his arrival, FBI agents arrested Khedkar. A subsequent search of his cellphone uncovered at least 25 conversations on the app indicative of sexual exploitation of children and disruptive images of child sexual abuse. In official statements, Khedkar admitted to the username "drbrownee" and the conversations with the undercover agent about abusing the "child."
This case was brought forward as part of Project Safe Childhood, a robust initiative launched in 2006 by the Justice Department. Its goal is to decisively crackdown on the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse by bringing together federal, state, and local efforts. The initiative's efforts in this case were led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, working in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
