Two military officers stationed in Hawai‘i have been busted this week for sexually exploiting children.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawai‘i Ken Sorenson announced Tuesday that 22-year-old Rumaldo Valdez, former Navy petty officer, was sentenced to 97 months in prison for the possession and promotion of child pornography.
The following day, Sorenson announced a conviction in a separate, unrelated case: 44-year-old Ross Andrew Brown, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, was convicted on two counts each of attempted sexual enticement of a minor, attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and attempted receipt of child pornography.
Valdez
In the Valdez case, the FBI was first alerted to his reported activities in 2021, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children submitted a tip that several people were using a Discord server to produce and share child sexual abuse material.
According to a criminal complaint, a confidential source on that server told the FBI that one user — operating under variations of the username “Duck” — had coerced an underage girl into sending him a sexually explicit video, which “Duck” then used to blackmail the girl.
The source claimed “Duck” had thus manipulated the girl into cutting the word “duck” into her arm, which she filmed. “Duck” then shared the video online — the FBI special agent who wrote the criminal complaint stated that participants in such child exploitation rings often use such media, called “fansigns,” as “trophies.”
“Duck” had also previously been tied to an online group called “Greggy’s Cult,” a ring of people that produced and distributed similar material before seemingly disbanding around 2021.
In any event, the FBI had linked “Duck” to Valdez through his IP address and Discord email by 2024. In May of that year, agents seized his computer and hard drives from the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific in Wahiawā.
On Valdez’s hard drives agents found several encrypted files containing child pornography, including at least one involving the murder of an infant and multiple depicting a toddler being tortured.
Elsewhere on Valdez’s drives, investigators found multiple images and videos of children displaying variations of the “Duck” username.
Valdez pled guilty in October 2025 to possession of child porn. Much of the court documents surrounding his case are sealed to the public; however, a sentencing memorandum by his defense attorney argued that Valdez was a minor when he began his activities — only 15 or 16 when he first became involved in “Greggy’s Cult” — and that he had joined the Navy “to get away from the destructive online extortion that he was involved in and tried to build a productive future for himself.”
Nonetheless, Valdez was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release.
“Let Valdez’s sentence serve as a warning to any other depraved and sadistic individuals who seek to harm and exploit children – there is nowhere for you to hide, no corner of the internet you will not be found, and no stone we will leave unturned to bring you to justice,” Sorenson said in a statement.
Brown
Meanwhile, Brown’s arrest came following a sting by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division.
According to a criminal complaint, a CID agent posed as a 14-year-old girl in 2023 using the now-defunct anonymous social media app Whisper. The agent’s posts prompted responses by a user who was eventually identified as Brown.
During their online conversations, Brown repeatedly made sexual comments toward the agent, believing that he was flirting with a 14-year-old.
Eventually, they made plans to meet in person in April 2023 at Schofield Barracks. The agent requested Brown bring a specific type of gum, and Brown dutifully bought the gum en route, without knowing he was being surveilled. CID arrested him promptly at the rendezvous point.
At a trial in February, Sorenson presented 38 other sexually explicit conversations between Brown and people presenting themselves as girls as young as 12 years old, including explicit images purportedly of minors. At least one of those conversations involved Brown unsuccessfully attempting to meet with a 15-year-old girl for sex at an airport hotel in 2021.
While a jury found Brown guilty of six out of the 17 charges against him, he will not be sentenced until June 23. He remains in custody, despite several motions by his attorneys for his release.
“It is a profound breach of trust to both our military community and the public we serve, when a senior military officer commits crimes that exploit the vulnerable,” said CID special agent in charge Ruben Santiago in a statement.
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