A former mayor of College Park, Md., pleaded responsible on Wednesday to possessing and distributing youngster sexual abuse imagery beneath a plea deal through which he agreed to serve 30 years in jail, prosecutors mentioned.
Under the settlement, the previous mayor, Patrick Wojahn, 47, who was arrested in March, pleaded responsible in Prince George’s County Circuit Court to 60 counts of distribution of the sexual abuse imagery, 40 counts of possession and 40 counts of possession with intent to distribute.
As a part of the plea deal, Mr. Wojahn agreed to serve 30 years of a 150-year jail sentence, with the rest suspended, based on the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office. He will grow to be eligible to use for parole after seven and a half years. A decide will sentence him on Nov. 20.
After his launch, Mr. Wojahn should register as a intercourse offender for 25 years and serve 5 years of probation, mentioned Jessica Garth, an assistant state’s legal professional.
“This is a horrific case,” Aisha Braveboy, the Prince George’s County state’s legal professional, mentioned in a news launch. “The College Park community put its faith and support in him to serve each resident and their best interests. Instead, he let them down in the most disgraceful way.”
Mr. Wojahn’s lawyer, David Moyse, didn’t touch upon the responsible plea.
The investigation into Mr. Wojahn started in February when the police acquired a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an account on the social media app Kik working inside Prince George’s County had possessed and transmitted photographs of kid sexual abuse.
Investigators decided that the account belonged to Mr. Wojahn, and that he had uploaded such imagery in January. The police then raided his residence, seizing telephones, a storage machine, a pill and a pc.
The evening earlier than his arrest, Mr. Wojahn, who had been mayor of College Park since 2015 and served for eight years on its City Council earlier than then, submitted a letter of resignation.
“I am stepping away to deal with my own mental health,” Mr. Wojahn wrote. “I ask that you continue to keep me and my family in your prayers.”
The costs towards Mr. Wojahn got here as a shock to College Park, a metropolis of roughly 34,000 folks and residential to the University of Maryland.
“There was never anything that would lead to me believe that something like this would happen,” Andrew Fellows, Mr. Wojahn’s mayoral predecessor, advised The New York Times in March.
Mr. Wojahn had been praised for his management in the course of the coronavirus pandemic and his assist of progressive causes, Mr. Fellows mentioned, together with advocating for same-sex marriage within the state and supporting a proper apology from the town in 2020 for its historical past of oppression in a Black neighborhood.
Source: www.nytimes.com