A Chevy Chase man has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing and blackmailing a woman he met through a dating website, authorities said.
Steven B. Fabrizio, 57, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count each of blackmail and third-degree sexual abuse.
Fabrizio first met the woman in person in August 2019 after corresponding through a dating website and by text message. They had consensual sex and Fabrizio gave her $400, which they had agreed to beforehand, the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said in a press release.
When the woman declined another meeting the next day, Fabrizio wrote in a text message that he would tell her employer, parents and landlord about their sex-for-cash agreement unless it continued, the press release said.
After more text messages by Fabrizio that were similar, the woman agreed to see him, the day after their first meeting.
During the second encounter, Fabrizio sexually abused the woman, the press release said.
His text messages continued, and the woman contacted police in D.C., who arrested Fabrizio two days after the woman’s first encounter with him.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Fabrizio faces up to five years in prison on the blackmail charge and up to 10 years on the sexual abuse charge when he is sentenced on Oct. 29 in Superior Court in D.C.
He will be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.