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Press Release

Former Danville Middle School Teacher Sentenced To 65 Months’ Imprisonment For Possession Of Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California

OAKLAND – Mitchell Phillip Wolf was sentenced today to 65 months in prison for possession of child pornography announced Acting United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson.

Wolf, 60, of Danville, pleaded guilty on July 8, 2015, to possessing child pornography.  According to the plea agreement, Wolf admitted to knowingly possessing approximately 50,000 digital files depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Wolf admitted to intentionally saving the image and video files to his personal desktop computer and to assorted CD-ROMs and DVDs that he stored in his home office and bedroom.  On many of the CD-ROMs and DVDs, Wolf hand-labeled their content with terms consistent with child pornography, such as “PTHC” for “pre-teen hardcore.”  Wolf admitted to downloading the digital files from the internet using an online peer-to-peer file sharing program. Wolf was charged by an information on April 3, 2015, with a single count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B).

The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Phyllis J. Hamilton, U.S. District Judge, following a guilty plea to the charged count.  In addition to the prison term, Judge Hamilton also ordered Wolf to serve a ten-year period of supervised release, including conditions prohibiting his use of computers and Internet, prohibiting him from frequenting locations where children may be present, and requiring him to submit to searches upon request of law enforcement, among other conditions.  Wolf will begin serving the prison term on January 4, 2016.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wade M. Rhyne is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Janice Pagsanjan.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children’s Task Force, and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.

Updated September 13, 2017

Topic
Violent Crime