Baltimore Man Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison For Possession Of Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge George L. Russell, III sentenced Jason Lewis Schwamberger, age 39, of Baltimore, today to three years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release. Judge Russell ordered that upon his release from prison, Schwamberger must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Lt. Colonel Anthony C. Satchell, Acting Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

According to his plea agreement, on two occasions in May 2013, an investigator with the Maryland State Police downloaded files containing child pornography that Schwamberger made available through a file sharing program.  On September 13, 2013, a search warrant was executed at Schwamberger’s residence and law enforcement seized his desktop computer, two external hard drives, a thumb drive and numerous CDs and DVDs.  A subsequent forensic examination of the seized items revealed that the file sharing program had been used to download child pornography and there were more than 1,000 images and 180 video files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct,

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.            

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI and Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow, who prosecuted the case.