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Patrick Wojahn, a former mayor of college Park in Prince George’s County, was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to 140 prices associated to baby pornography.

The sentence, handed down at an emotional, hours-long listening to in Prince George’s Circuit Court, was a part of a deal between Wojahn and prosecutors that was accepted by Judge Karen Mason, who commended the previous mayor for taking ownership of the harm he had prompted.

"I do sense the remorsefulness," she mentioned. "And I do know you take duty." Under Maryland regulation, Wojahn shall be eligible for parole in 7½ years.

The judge heard hours of sufferer impression statements read by prosecutors, as well as declarations of support from sixteen folks within the courtroom who spoke about Wojahn’s history of public service, earlier than announcing the sentence. She cited Wojahn’s personal past as a sufferer of sexual abuse, which he solely lately shared together with his family, as one cause she was referring him to the Patuxent Institution, a remedy-oriented maximum-safety prison in Maryland.

College Park mayor resigns and faces child pornography expenses

Since Wojahn, 48, was first arrested earlier this year on allegations he possessed and distributed pictures and videos depicting explicit baby intercourse abuse - including the rape of prepubescent boys by adults - the close-knit College Park group and its former mayor’s regional community have been parsing via a series of advanced feelings: Shock at the character of the crimes. Confusion that Wojahn, a beloved public servant, would commit them. Anger over the implications he would - or wouldn't - face.

Before police began investigating him, Wojahn had been mayor of school Park, residence to the University of Maryland’s flagship campus, for seven years and had served on the city Council for eight years before that. He graduated from Georgetown University Law School and was an avid cyclist and staunch LGBTQ advocate - joining a lawsuit towards the state of Maryland alongside his now-husband to make marriage a legal proper for all within the state.

As an elected official, he advocated environmental and social justice issues in College Park, supported folks with disabilities, and worked to unite the campus and town.

But in court docket Monday, prosecutors said Wojahn had led a "double life," his prolonged history of public good starkly contradicting his personal conduct, which police stated started in January, when Wojahn uploaded and shared dozens of images and movies depicting little one intercourse abuse to social media apps.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children knowledgeable Prince George’s County police of the social media exercise in mid-February, and 10 days later investigators obtained a warrant to search Wojahn’s College Park dwelling. He waived his right to remain silent and advised authorities that a Kik account that had posted the express content was his, police mentioned in court docket paperwork. Additional images had been later found on the social media app Telegram.

Police additionally said that Wojahn "advised that he has viewed and possessed recordsdata depicting baby pornography," in response to court papers.

Wojahn was first indicted by a grand jury in March on 80 counts of possessing and intent to distribute child pornography, which had been elevated to 140 counts in a superseding indictment in May, in keeping with online courtroom information. In August, he pleaded guilty to all 140 counts: 60 of distribution of baby pornography, forty of possession of baby pornography and forty of possessing baby pornography with the intent to distribute.

Former College Park mayor pleads responsible to baby porn costs

In court docket Monday, prosecutors Jessica Garth and Monica Meyers asked the choose to contemplate the impact Wojahn’s choices had on every child victimized within the hundreds of pictures and movies he possessed and shared. About 52 of those children had been recognized by law enforcement officials in collaboration with the Justice Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Prosecutors read the main points of their circumstances, of the abuse they endured and the lifelong impact it has had on their emotional and physical well being. Written statements from those victims - some of whom are actually adults - have been shared with the courtroom, as well as testimonies from their mother and father and guardians. They shared their struggles with excessive anxiety, paranoia, poor sleep, trust issues and a way of safety. Some said that people who know them from their online exploitation stalk them in actual life. One woman, now married and with her own kids, said she was forced to maneuver and shut down her social media after her identity was found.

Nearly all of the victims stated they feel re-victimized, as though their abuse were taking place over again, each time they be taught somebody new has viewed the express pictures taken of them as youngsters.

"This just isn't a victimless crime," Meyers said.

When Wojahn’s supporters started to speak, he pivoted in his seat to face them. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit from the Calvert County jail, where he has been held since his arrest, he wept through all sixteen speeches - growing probably the most emotional as his mom, sister and husband spoke. Many who addressed the decide on his behalf did so in an try and get his prison time reduced. All of them acknowledged he ought to face accountability for his crimes, but urged the choose to deal with a path that centered on healing, not just punishment. They accused prosecutors of asking for a a lot larger sentence than what others who did the same or worse in Prince George’s County have confronted.

Before he was sentenced to a total of a hundred and fifty years, with all but 30 years suspended, Wojahn stood and publicly addressed the fees towards him for the first time.

He apologized to the children who have been sexually abused: "I know I contributed to that, and I’m deeply, deeply sorry … I acknowledge the injury I've triggered." He apologized to the College Park community: "I want to be the individual they know me to be." He apologized to his household, turning to his husband, who moments before had affirmed his love for Wojahn: "I love you, too, very much."

He said he didn’t understand how he’d gotten here, itemizing off a collection of life stressors and traumas which will have triggered an addiction inside him - together with his own childhood intercourse abuse, the latest dying of his father and the chronic stress of his job. "None of these things excuses or justifies the things I've achieved," he said.

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