Bel Air Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison For Distributing Child Pornography Online

Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Ronald Riggs, age 64, of Bel Air, Maryland, today to five years in prison followed by supervised release for life for distributing child pornography.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Riggs’ plea agreement, in December of 2008 an undercover law enforcement agent searching the internet for child pornography connected to a file sharing program and downloaded 11 files belonging to Riggs. The files contained child pornography.

On February 4, 2009, a search warrant was executed at Riggs’ residence, and computers and other electronic media were seized. Eighty-eight images and 12 video files documenting the sexual abuse of minors, including children under the age of 12, were found on Riggs’ computer. Riggs admits that there were more than 600 images of child pornography on his computer.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States 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. Details about Maryland’s program are available at www.justice.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bonnie S. Greenberg and Tamera Fine, who prosecuted the case.