La Plata Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

GREENBELT, MD—Lawrence Fox, age 27, of LaPlata, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to possession of child pornography, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to Fox’s plea agreement, a search warrant was executed at his home and the computers used by Fox were seized. A forensic analysis of the computers found that they contained more than 600 images of child pornography, including images of prepubescent girls and boys, as well as girls and boys in their early teens, in erotic or sexually graphic and explicit poses. Some of the pictures were located in multiple places within the hard drive and some materials portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.

Fox faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography, followed by supervised release up to life. As a result of his guilty plea, Fox will also be required to register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte has scheduled sentencing for November 18, 2009, at 9:30 a.m.

This case is 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 Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and St. Mary’s County Sheriff Timothy Cameron and his office for their investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys David I. Salem and Mushtaq Z. Gunja, who are prosecuting the case.