East Stroudsburg Man Sentenced to 97 Months in Prison for Receiving and Distributing Child Pornography

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 39-year-old Monroe County resident who admitted to downloading and possessing child pornography was sentenced to 97 months in prison yesterday by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik.

According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, Joseph Violanti previously admitted to committing the offense between 2001 and 2006.

Violanti was indicted by a federal grand jury on October 28, 2008, as a result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pennsylvania State Police.

Judge Kosik also ordered that Violanti be placed on supervised release for 10 years following his prison sentence and pay a fine of $1500 and a special assessment of $200.

U.S. Attorney Smith noted that 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.

U.S. Attorney Smith noted that the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.