June 30, 2014

Clarks Summit Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a Clarks Summit man pleaded guilty today before Senior U.S. District Court Judge James M. Munley to producing child pornography.

According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Taylor Bzdyr, age 20, admitted to using a computer and a cell phone to persuade a 13-year-old female from Canada to engage in sexual acts which were transmitted live via Skype. Bzdry committed the offense between October 2012 and October 2013.

Bzdyr was indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in Scranton on March 11, 2014, as a result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Border Patrol Agents in California, and the New Westminster Police Department in British Columbia, Canada.

Bzdyr faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a possible maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. Judge Munley ordered a pre-sentence report to be completed, and scheduled sentencing for October 2, 2014.

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.”

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa.