Lackawanna County Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Internet Enticement of a Minor

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 33-year-old Moscow man pleaded guilty today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas M. Blewitt to using the Internet and a cell phone to attempt to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual conduct.

According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, John Swenski admitted that he attempted to persuade and entice a minor to meet him in Scranton for illicit sexual purposes. Federal agents arrested Swenski in January 2010 when he arrived at a location for the purpose of meeting with the minor child.

Swenski was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2010, following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Scranton Police.

The plea agreement in the case calls for Swenski to be sentenced to 132 months in prison, to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release. Sentencing will be scheduled after a pre-sentence report is completed by the United States Probation Office. Swenaki remains detained in prison pending sentencing.

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.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.