He must also pay restitution.
Jeffrey John White
Baltimore, Md (KM) A stiff sentence was handed down on Thursday in US District Court in Baltimore to a Woodsboro man. Jeffrey John White, 53, was given 11 years behind bars for possession of child pornography. After he’s released from prison, White will be placed on 20-years supervised released.
“And specifically in this case, Mr. White, who had been on probation for a prior conviction at the state level for similar conduct, continued to violate the law and possess rather disturbing images and videos of child pornography,” says Acting US Attorney for Maryland, Jonathan Lenzner.
The US Attorney’s Office says White was convicted of two counts of possession of 10,000 files child pornography in Montgomery County Circuit Court on September 25th, 2014. He was sentenced to five years incarceration which was suspended. White was also given five years of supervised probation. .
On September 30th, 2015, White was found to have violated his probation and was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 18-month suspended, followed by four years of supervised probation.
Federal prosecutors say White, while on probation for his previous child pornography conviction, was using a peer-to-peer file sharing network where he was able to access, distribute and possess child pornography from April 14th, 2020 through July, 2020. On three occasions in April, 2020, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office was able to establish 20 direct connections with a device which turned out to be White’s laptop and SD card to view and download child pornography. One was a one-hour video depicting a 12-year-old prepubescent child.
Lenzner says law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at White’s home in Woodsboro on July 6th, 2020, and confiscated his laptop and SD card. He says investigators were able to gain access to the encrypted laptop, where they found 7,000 images and more than 240 videos of child pornography.
“They were able to link up some of the images of Mr. White’s laptop with some images and video they had found had been downloaded of child pornography,” says Lenzner.
He also says in cases of child pornography, the children involved in the production of this material are also victims of abuse. “Unfortunately, child pornography violates and abuses victims not only once, but these images live on line for years to come,” Lenzner says.
As part of his sentence, White was ordered to pay a $5,000 special assessment, and $3,000 in restitution. He must also continue to register as a sex offender when he’s released from prison wherever he works, lives or is a student.
The US Attorney’s Office says this case was brought by Project Safe Childhood which is a nationwide effort launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. It’s led by US Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. Project Safe Childhood brings together federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims.
By Kevin McManus