Hyattsville Man Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Possessing Child Pornography

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Rahn Hemby, age 23, of Hyattsville, Maryland, today to four years in prison followed by lifetime supervised release for possessing child pornography. Judge Quarles ordered that upon his release from prison, Hemby 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).

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Steven Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the plea agreement, on September 28, 2010 and March 1, 2011, an undercover FBI agent connected to a publicly available file sharing program on the Internet and observed that Hemby was logged in, sharing over 15,000 files, including images of child pornography. The agent downloaded some of the images and videos of child pornography from Hemby’s shared file.

On May 11, 2011, the FBI executed a search warrant at his home and seized a laptop, external hard drive, and two computers. A review of the images on Hemby’s computers and devices revealed far greater than 600 files that are visual depictions of child pornography.

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 for its work in the investigation and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow, who prosecuted the case.