The previous Democrat Mayor of School Park, Maryland, Patrick Wojahn, has been handed a 30-year jail sentence after pleading responsible to costs associated to the possession and distribution of kid sexual abuse materials.
Earlier this 12 months, The Gateway Pundit reported that the Prince George’s County police department arrested Wojahn quickly after they found he was working a social media account distributing pornography.
“The Metropolis of School Park was made conscious this morning of former Mayor Patrick Wojahn’s arrest by Prince George’s County Police and the costs which were filed. We’re shocked and disturbed by the information; what has come to gentle on this investigation is a complete shock to us,” in accordance with the press release.
Earlier than his arrest, Wojahn, who served as mayor from 2015-2023, had friendships with high-profile Democrats corresponding to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The Washington Blade in 2019 reported, “Pete Buttigieg has mentored Patrick Wojahn through the years.”
Native School Park information outlet the Diamond Back would go additional and reported Patrick Wojahn obtained vital recommendation from Buttigieg and the 2 even went out for beers as soon as in Riverdale, Maryland.
Together with Woman Gaga and the Dalai Lama, Wojahn additionally took an image with Nancy Pelosi:
Prince George’s County Police Division (PGPD) wrote in a press release, “On February 17, 2023, the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters notified the PGPD {that a} social media account working within the county possessed and distributed suspected youngster pornography. The picture and movies had been uploaded to the social media account in January of 2023. By way of numerous investigative methods, PGPD investigators found the social media account belonged to Wojahn.”
It continued, “On February 28, 2023, PGPD detectives served a search warrant at Wojahn’s School Park dwelling. Investigators recovered a number of cell telephones, a storage gadget, a pill and a pc. Following extra investigation, PGPD obtained prison costs in opposition to Wojahn and investigators took him into custody early this morning.”
Wojahn filed for his resignation following his arrest, stating, “Whereas this investigation doesn’t contain any official metropolis enterprise of any form, it’s in the most effective pursuits of our neighborhood that I step apart and never function a distraction. I’ve nice belief within the potential of Mayor Professional Tem Mitchell, the Metropolis Council, and our employees to hold ahead what we’ve achieved.”
On August 2, Wojahn pleaded responsible to a complete of 140 counts, together with 60 counts of distribution, 40 counts of possession, and 40 counts of intent to distribute youngster pornography, WUSA9 reported.
On Monday, a former Maryland mayor, Patrick Wojahn, solely obtained a lightweight sentence of three a long time behind bars. The plea deal concluded with Wojahn being sentenced to 150 years, nevertheless, the courtroom suspended 120 years, successfully sending Wojahn to jail for less than 30 years plus 5 years’ probation. He should additionally register as a intercourse offender for 25 years, in accordance with The Baltimore Banner.
The information outlet reported:
For nearly 1½ hours on the sentencing Monday of former School Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, Assistant State’s Attorneys Monica Meyers and Jess Garth defined how possession and distribution of kid sexual abuse materials is just not a victimless crime.
Regulation enforcement, prosecutors mentioned, knew the names of 52 kids who appeared in pictures on Wojahn’s cellphone. They skilled sexual abuse all around the world. America. Canada. Mexico. Spain. Germany. The UK.
However there have been tons of, if not 1000’s extra kids that investigators couldn’t determine. The overall quantity was so massive, prosecutors mentioned, that it surpassed the enrollment of Wojahn’s native elementary college, Hollywood Elementary.
“Though the sufferer is separated from the one who is abusing them by a pc display screen, they exist,” mentioned Garth, who’s chief of the Particular Victims and Household Violence Unit within the Prince George’s County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace, at a news conference. “They’re actual folks.”
State’s Lawyer Aisha Braveboy described the sentence as “fair.”
In line with Maryland’s parole legal guidelines, he might probably safe an early launch after serving 1 / 4 of his sentence, which might be about seven and a half years, in accordance with WTOP News.
Extra from the information outlet:
In the course of the listening to, Myers learn off dozens of statements from victims and their mother and father that detailed the abuse seen within the pictures and movies, a few of which depicted very younger kids, together with infants. In some situations, the victims had been certain or injured in the course of the abuse.
“Folks typically check with this as a victimless crime, or they attempt to justify the actions of the defendant by saying he didn’t contact anybody,” Myers mentioned. “The aim of introducing all of the statements by the victims in the present day was to actually convey behind each picture he possessed is a narrative.”
One sufferer who spoke on video mentioned she was stalked and harassed on-line for years after the abuse and even needed to transfer.
Myers mentioned greater than 500 victims who dwell all over the world had been on Wojahn’s cellphone.
