A Valparaiso man faces 30 years in prison after convincing a 14-year-old girl he met on Facebook to perform oral sex on him, according to court records.
Zachary Berkshire, 32, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of enticing a minor child and two counts of producing child pornography, according to a plea agreement filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond.
The agreement calls for a binding recommendation of a 30-year sentence for Berkshire. If a federal judge rejects the sentence, Berkshire can change his plea to not guilty.
Berkshire, who was arrested a year ago, could have faced a charge that would have brought a mandatory life sentence, his attorney, Bryan Truitt, said. However, he began cooperating with federal attorneys, and both sides have spent the past year working out this agreement, Truitt said.
Berkshire also faces charges in Lake and Porter counties, and prosecutors in other jurisdictions have also considered charges, Truitt said. Although the plea deal does not guarantee that any of those other cases will be dropped, Truitt said he hopes that his client’s agreement to a 30-year sentence will induce them to drop other charges.
“Hopefully this can bring closure to these girls and hopefully this is the end of it all,” Truitt said.
According to the agreement, Berkshire met one of his victims through Facebook in August 2014 using the alias Joey. He then texted the girl, who he thought was 13 but was actually 14, claiming to be a friend of Joey’s named Brandon. He arranged to meet the girl at a park somewhere in Northwest Indiana, where he had her perform oral sex on him and also touched her genitals, according to the plea agreement.
The two continued to talk through text messages, and, in January 2015, he had her send him several photographs of her in sexual positions and of her genitals.
Berkshire also admits to secretly recording a second girl who was under 16 at the time in 2013 by hiding a camera in a bathroom.
A court hearing for the case is set for Friday.
tauch@post-trib.com
