By Steve Neavling
Prosecutors are asking a Montgomery County, Maryland judge to sentence former FBI agent Eduardo Valdivia to 122 years in prison for raping three women inside tattoo studios he secretly operated, calling his actions “predatory and terrifying,” The Washington Post reports.
Valdivia, 41, was convicted in July of six counts of second-degree rape and two counts of fourth-degree sex offense after an eight-day trial. Prosecutors said he used the name “Lalo Brown” and posed as a tattoo artist and modeling recruiter to lure young women to isolated studios in Potomac and Gaithersburg.
“He created an illusion in their minds that if they continue contact with him, they were going to make their professional modeling dreams come true,” prosecutors Sheila Bagheri and Rachel Morris wrote in a court filing. “All of this was one big sham to lure them into his trap.”
All three victims — ages 18, 20, and 21 — testified at trial. Prosecutors said one was still in high school when she was attacked, and that Valdivia committed the assault while on bond for an earlier shooting case.
Valdivia admitted having sex with the women but claimed it was consensual.
“As much as Mr. Valdivia exercised poor judgment, and that is a gross understatement, he did not commit a crime,” his attorney, Robert Bonsib, told jurors.
Valdivia, who joined the FBI in 2011, had been suspended during the trial and has since been fired. Sentencing is scheduled for Tuesday before Montgomery County Circuit Judge Cheryl McCally.
