Joseph Gallina

Introduction

Joseph Gallina, a 34-year-old man from New Orleans, was sentenced on November 3, 2026, to 120 months — ten years — in federal prison for coercing a minor child into producing sexually explicit videos and photographs of herself, material he then posted on a fetish website while soliciting adult men to meet her for sex in the Washington, D.C. area. At least one man who responded to Gallina’s post met the child in the District and sexually abused her. Gallina pleaded guilty in April 2026 to coercion and enticement of a minor, and the sentence was imposed in the District of Columbia.

Background Information

The conduct the court sentenced began in July 2024, when Gallina began communicating with the minor child through text messages and several different mobile applications. Over those conversations he instructed her to produce sexually explicit videos and photos of herself, and she sent them to him. He discussed meeting the child in person and told her that her family could not know about their relationship. In one message, Gallina wrote: “[b]eing a minor, I could get into a lot of trouble for doing that. You would have to stop contact with ypur (sic) family” — an acknowledgment of the criminal line he was crossing, delivered while crossing it.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Gallina pleaded guilty on April 30, 2026, before Chief Judge James E. Boasberg to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor, and was sentenced on November 3, 2026; the conviction and sentence are adjudicated facts.

Gallina did not keep the material to himself. He posted a solicitation on a fetish website that included the sexually explicit images of the minor child and sought to arrange sexual encounters between her and adult men in the D.C. area. Several men responded to the post, and one of them met the minor child in the District of Columbia and had sex with her. Gallina then told the child he wanted to see a video of her encounter with the adult man and gave her specific instructions for what to say and do during it. When she was not able to record the encounter, Gallina told her he was “disappointed.” The case, prosecuted in the District of Columbia under case number 24cr529, reads as a facilitation scheme in which the child was both the product and the camera operator.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro announced the sentence: “The conduct in this case is deeply disturbing. Joseph Gallina groomed a child, coerced her into creating sexually explicit material, and then sought to facilitate her sexual exploitation by adult men,” Pirro said, adding that anyone who preys on children “will be relentlessly pursued and held accountable. If you exploit a child, expect the same outcome as this defendant: a federal prison sentence.” In addition to the 120-month prison term, Chief Judge Boasberg ordered five years of supervised release and required Gallina to register as a sex offender.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and announced jointly with FBI Assistant Director in Charge Darren B. Cox of the Washington Field Office. It was brought as part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood initiative, the national program against online child exploitation. The consequences are the full federal stack: a ten-year prison term, five years of supervised release, and sex-offender registration. The release notes that several men responded to the solicitation Gallina posted, and that one of them met the child in the District — the record of that meeting is what lifts the case above a possession or production prosecution.

Current Status

Gallina is sentenced to 120 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and is required to register as a sex offender. His guilty plea to coercion and enticement of a minor closed the case against him in the District of Columbia, where the solicitation was aimed. Assistant United States Attorney Karen Shinskie prosecuted the case. No public statement from Gallina or his attorney was reported in the announcement.

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 34, Gallina begins a ten-year term that will carry him into his mid-forties in federal custody, followed by supervised release and lifetime sex-offender registration — a status that governs where he may live, work, and travel for the rest of his life. The crime he admitted was not a passive possession case but an active facilitation one: the court record establishes that he supplied a child to adult men, which places his conduct among the most serious coercion-and-enticement prosecutions the office announces.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, “New Orleans Man Sentenced in D.C. for Coercing and Enticing a Minor,” November 3, 2026. source