Ex-College Park mayor pleads guilty to child porn charges
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - The disgraced former mayor of College Park pleaded guilty Wednesday to more than 100 counts of child pornography possession and distribution.
Patrick Wojahn is now facing 150 years – suspend all but 30 years in prison.
Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy released a statement after the court hearing.
"This is a horrific case," Braveboy said. "I am truly pleased that Mr. Wojahn has pled guilty and accepted responsibility for his actions and these horrendous crimes. As a former elected official, 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 a most disgraceful way. I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to our police department and national partners for their diligent work and relentless efforts in investigating and pursuing the leads that brought us to this point. Our children are both precious and vulnerable, deserving of the utmost protection. The tragedy of them being preyed upon in cases like this cannot be understated.
"I want families in Prince George’s County to rest assured, that we will continue to exhaust every possible effort to ensure their safety and well-being," she added.
Back on Feb. 17, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified the Prince George's County Police Department that a social media account in the county distributed suspected child pornography in January. Police said they investigated the matter and found the social media account with the screen name "skippy_md" belonged to Wojahn. Investigators believe Wojahn was using a virtual private network (VPN) to mask his location when accessing the social media account.
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College Park mayor arrested on 56 counts of child pornography; Faces up to 360 years in prison
The mayor of College Park was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography Thursday morning, according to officials.
Investigators linked the social media account to Wojahn after a subpoena revealed that his College Park government email address was listed as the recovery email for the account. They also discovered Wojahn's phone number and home IP address were linked to the account.
He resigned from his position as mayor on March 2 before his arrest.
The 47-year-old was elected mayor of College Park in November 2015 after serving as a city council member for eight years.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20.