Twice-Convicted Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Eight Counts of Production of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 04, 2012 |
BALTIMOREMD—Terrance Dion Robinson, age 39, of Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to eight counts of sexually exploiting minors to produce child pornography. Robinson had two previous convictions in Montgomery County, Maryland, for crimes involving the sexual abuse of children.
The guilty plea 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; Commissioner Anthony W. Batts of the Baltimore Police Department; and Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein.
According to the plea agreement, between 2007 and 2010, Robinson produced images and videos of two prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, while Robinson was alone with the victims. Additionally, Robinson used a publicly available file sharing program to download images and videos of child pornography from the Internet. Robinson saved the images and videos to his laptop computer, external hard drive, and to other digital media.
On October 18, 2010, detectives from the Child Abuse Unit of the Baltimore Police Department searched Robinson’s residence and seized Robinson’s computer equipment and digital camera. During a subsequent forensic examination of the computer and digital media, investigators found images and videos of the victims engaged in sexually explicit conduct produced by Robinson. The digital media seized from Robinson’s home also contained over 600 images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including at least four videos. The videos were downloaded from the Internet in 2010 using a file sharing program. The forensic examination of the computer, external hard drive, thumb drives, flash drives, CDs, and DVDs revealed that Robinson regularly searched for files, websites, and discussions relating to child pornography and encryption.
As part of his plea agreement, Robinson 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).
Robinson faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison for each of eight counts of production of child pornography, followed by up to lifetime supervised release. U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar has scheduled sentencing for March 25, 2013, at 10:00 a.m.
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.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Baltimore Police Department, and the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in this investigation and prosecution. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow and Special Assistant United States Attorney Christine Duey of the U.S. Justice Department, who are prosecuting the case.