Upshur County Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Federal Prison for Sex Offense Against A Minor

BECKLEY, W.Va. – An Upshur County man was sentenced today to 168 months in federal prison for a sex crime against a minor.

George Albert Romer, Jr., 63, of Buckhannon, was convicted of attempted sex trafficking of a minor following a jury trial in June 2021. The evidence at trial revealed that on October 31, 2019, Romer began communicating via a dating application with a person he understood to a 15-year-old girl in Lewisburg, West Virginia. During the messages, Romer offered to pay the girl $100 to engage in sexual intercourse. On November 1, 2019, Romer drove from Buckhannon to Lewisburg and rented a hotel room in order to meet the minor. He was placed under arrest shortly thereafter.

Following his release from prison, Romer will be placed on supervised release for 15 years and will be required to register as a sex offender.  

United States Attorney William S. Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.  Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Rada Herrald and Courtney Cremeans handled the prosecution.

United States District Judge Frank W. Volk imposed the sentence. 

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s 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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:19-cr-00293.

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