Chesapeake child sex crimes case elevated to federal court
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A man accused of coercion and sex crimes against minors in Chesapeake has been charged in federal court.
Gabriel Raen Brooks, originally of Centreville, in northern Virginia, was charged with rape, sodomy, indecent liberties with a child and solicitation of prostitution in July, in Chesapeake.
He appeared in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court momentarily on Thursday, Feb. 1 for what was supposed to be a preliminary hearing. Instead, the judge quickly granted the Commonwealth’s motion to nolle prosse, or set aside, the charges to allow the federal case to move forward.
The local charges can still be brought back depending on the federal case.
He was charged in U.S. District Court Wednesday with coercion and enticement of a minor and aiding and abetting.
An affidavit in the federal court paperwork alleges that Brooks had sexual relations with two 14-year-olds from Chesapeake in April 2023. He used two social media apps (previously reported as Wizz and Snapchat) to meet and communicate with one of the minors.
Brooks, 22, appeared to use marijuana as a coercion tool. Court documents included some of the online conversation between Brooks and the 14-year-olds — “tbh that’s a lot of weed what y’all finna do for me,” one of them read.
The documents also noted that Brooks had an associated address near Old Dominion University and “appeared” to be a student there.
He was also charged with propositioning sex by computer, reproducing child pornography and the rape of a minor in Shenandoah County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in August. He’s accused of raping two minors, including one younger than 13, in Woodstock.
According to court documents, he was arrested on the Chesapeake charges in July. The affidavit describes how investigators used his cell phone ping location to corroborate the victims’ statements and eventually take him into custody in Florida, where he had started classes as a grad student at Florida A&M.
Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP, Submit a tip on line at P3TIPS.COM, or on their smart phone on the P3TIPS app.
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