A 39-year-old man from Woodhull arranged to meet a 11-year-old child in Moline for a sexual encounter, but was greeted by FBI agents instead. Scott Edward Raschke engaged in online conversations with a 11-year-old child for months before he traveled to Moline to pay for sex and take sexually explicit photos of the child. Scott Raschke was sentenced to 20 years each count in federal prison for Attempted Sex Trafficking of Children, Attempted Enticement of a Minor and Sexual Exploitation of a Child. The sentences for each count run concurrently, or at the same time, for a total of 20 years. He has a lifetime of Supervised Release following the prison sentence and a $300 special assessment.
From November 10, 2020, to June 7, 2021, Scott Raschke believed he was speaking to a male subject that was sex trafficking his 11-year-old daughter. The male subject was an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations that was conducting an undercover operation on Craigslist to identify individuals attempting to sexually exploit children. Raschke was arrested by law enforcement in Moline where he believed he was meeting the father to pay for sex with his minor daughter.
Also at the hearing, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Sara Darrow discussed the seriousness of Raschke’s conduct, commenting on graphic nature of the conversations Raschke engaged in and his intent to memorialize the abuse of a child.
Raschke pled guilty to the charges in May of 2023. The statutory penalties for the offenses are of 15 years up to life imprisonment for Attempted Sex Trafficking of Children, 15 years up to 30 years imprisonment for Sexual Exploitation of a Child and 10 years up to life imprisonment for Attempted Enticement of a Minor. The convictions also provided for a term of supervised release from five years to life.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer L. Mathew represented the federal government in the prosecution.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
