Former Grove City Man Sentenced to 17½ Years in Prison for Producing Child Pornography

PITTSBURGH, PA - A former resident of Grove City, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 17 years and 6 months in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, on his conviction of production of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

United States District Judge Arthur J. Schwab imposed the sentence on Matthew Switzer, 33.

According to information presented to the court at the time of Switzer’s guilty plea, Switzer coerced a four-year-old female to engage in sexually explicit conduct on multiple occasions for the purpose of producing at least 13 visual depictions of such conduct. The photographs were later discovered by the victim’s mother and forensically retrieved from his Gmail account by members of the Pennsylvania State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Switzer faces numerous state charges in Mercer County, which allege, among other things, that he also sexually assaulted another minor female.

Assistant United States Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Pennsylvania State Police conducted the investigation leading to the prosecution of Switzer.

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.