Army Sergeant Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Receiving Child Pornography from the Internet

BALTIMORE, MD—U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Jason Michelsen, age 30, of Columbia, Maryland, today to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for receiving child pornography, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to his plea agreement, Michelsen is a staff sergeant with the U.S. Army assigned to the Security Intelligence Unit. An investigation revealed that in May, 2007 Michelsen used his credit card to subscribe to a website making child pornography available for a fee. ICE agents searched his residence on February 4, 2009 and seized two laptop computers and three hard disk drives containing 24 videos and 33 images documenting the sexual abuse of minors.

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 http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Howard County Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for their investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson R. Mihok, who prosecuted the case.