District Man Sentenced to 47-Month Prison Term for Possession of Child Pornography
Defendant Collected More Than 100,000 Images of Child Pornography
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 01, 2011 |
WASHINGTON—Diego Fasolini, a former university professor, was sentenced today to 47 months in prison for possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and Cathy L. Lanier, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Fasolini, 43, of Washington, D.C., pled guilty to the charge in April 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced today by the Honorable Beryl A. Howell. Upon completion of his prison term, he will be on five years of supervised release.
According to the government’s evidence, on October 18, 2010, Fasolini, who at the time was a professor at George Washington University, brought his computer hard drive to one of the university’s computer centers for a technical problem. Upon additional examination of the contents of the hard drive a few days later, university employees observed suspected child pornography and contacted the MPD and the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force.
On October 28, 2010, law enforcement obtained and executed a search warrant to search Fasolini’s computer equipment, and confirmed that it contained child pornography. The defendant was then arrested. During the course of the investigation, law enforcement searched additional computer equipment, including items at Fasolini’s residence. Forensic analysis confirmed that Fasolini had collected more than 100,000 images of child pornography.
This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and MPD.
Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen, Assistant Director McJunkin, and Chief Lanier commended the work of the MPD detectives and special agents of the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force. They also acknowledged the efforts of U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigator John Marsh, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney David B. Kent, who prosecuted the case.