Federalsburg Man Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Producing Child Pornography

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz sentenced Scott Zalewski, age 31, of Federalsburg, Maryland, today to 40 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for two counts of producing child pornography. Judge Motz ordered that upon his release from prison, Zalewski 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; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Caroline County Sheriff Randy Bounds; and Caroline County State’s Attorney Jonathan Newell.

According to the plea agreement, on at least three occasions from July through August 2011, Zalewski took sexually explicit photographs of a minor female, under 12 years of age, including several photographs documenting his sexual abuse of the girl, which he then e-mailed to another person. On January 2, 2013, the Zalewski’s live-in girlfriend provided police with photographs that contained sexually explicit images of the victim, which she reported finding in Zalewski’s e-mail account.

Police arrested Zalewski later on January 2, 2013. A search warrant subsequently executed on Zalewski’s e-mail account recovered digital copies of the sexually explicit pictures of the victim being sent to another individual. More than a dozen other e-mails were also seized, dating from July and August 2011, in which Zalewski was trading sexually explicit images of other children with other individuals.

A hard drive recovered from Zalewski’s house and a laptop Zalewski’s ex-girlfriend previously turned over to police were also searched pursuant to a federal warrant. The hard drive contained 45 images of child pornography, dating from approximately April 2008. On the laptop were records of chats in which the defendant discussed and exchanged child pornography with others, dating from approximately December 2006 through October 2007.

Text messages recovered from Zalewski’s cell phone showed discussion of child pornography with others on December 31, 2012 and January 1, 2013. Some text messages had image attachments, but the images were deleted and could not be recovered.

Zalewski previously pleaded guilty in Caroline County Circuit Court to a second-degree sex offense and to rape in the second degree and was sentenced to a total of 40 years in prison on those charges. Zalewski’s state and federal sentences will be served concurrently.

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.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Caroline County Sheriff’s Office, and Caroline County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin S. Herring, who prosecuted the case.