February 12, 2015

Carbon County Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Producing Child Pornography

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 47-year-old Kidder Township man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison today by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik in Scranton, for producing child pornography.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Todd Kowar, previously pleaded guilty to persuading and inducing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images of such conduct. Kowar committed the crime between 2008 and December 2012.

The case against Kowar resulted from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, and Kidder Township Police. Kowar was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2014.

Judge Kosik ordered that Kowar’s federal sentence run consecutive to a sentence he is currently serving in Carbon County for other charges. Kowar must also serve 10 years on supervised release following his prison sentence, and pay a $100 special assessment. Kowar must also undergo sex offender treatment and comply with sex offender restrictions and registration requirements when he is released from prison.

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 tab “resources.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa prosecuted the case.