Child Pornography

Two area attorneys were charged in federal court this week in unrelated child pornography cases, according to records. David Bart Goldstein, a former partner with the firm of Daneker, McIntire, Schumm, Prince, Goldstein, Manning and Widmann, was charged in a criminal complaint with distributing an image of child pornography. An attorney with the firm said Goldstein resigned earlier in March for "personal reasons" and his information had been removed from the company website. In an unrelated case also filed Tuesday, Patrick Joseph Redd, a former malpractice attorney, was charged with possessing a computer with images depicting children engaged in "explicit" conduct.

Baltimore Police asked for the public's help Friday in identifying victims of a Dundalk man they say collected and traded child pornography. David Ralph Fisher, 42, of the 6500 block of St. Helena Street in Dundalk, was arrested Thursday after a sting operation by officers posing as a 14-year-old girl, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. He faces charges of possession and distribution of child pornography and sexual solicitation of a minor. Detectives began investigating Fisher in November after an associate reported that she had found photographs and videos on his computer that showed adults having sex with children as young as two years old, police said.

A Maryland State Trooper faces felony charges of possessing child pornography after more than 3,000 images were found on his computer, a Baltimore County Police spokesman said. Investigators say Bruce Allen Tucker, 47, of Esplanade Court in Owings Mills, had received and exchanged images of child pornography, including male and female children performing sex acts, posing nude and performing oral sex. He was arrested July 16 and released after posting $50,000 bail. State Police spokeswoman Elena Russo said Tucker has been suspended without pay. According to the statement of charges, the investigation began in March.

Baltimore police said Friday that patient pictures taken by Johns Hopkins gynecologist Dr. Nikita Levy could contain child pornography, and they've turned the evidence over to the FBI for analysis. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to elaborate but said the files reviewed so far contained pictures of patients photographed during medical examinations and could include images of juveniles - which he characterized as a legitimate possibility given the age of some of Levy's patients.

A 21-year-old Baltimore man, who pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography, was sentenced to five years in federal prison Tuesday, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. FBI agents in Philadelphia and San Diego independently discovered in March of last year that Kenneth Johnson was sharing hundreds of pornographic photos and videos online through peer-to-peer file programs, according to court records. He later admitted to possessing and distributing thousands of illegal images, federal prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury has indicted a 69-year-old Easton man on charges of production and possession of child pornography. The indictment was returned against Paul Henry Brown last month. In an appearance before a federal judge on March 2, Brown was ordered held pending trial and state charges were dismissed. In a statement released by his office, Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, said Brown was alleged to have sexually exploited minors to produce pornography.

A 28-year-old Parkville man on Monday pleaded guilty to producing child pornography by coercing a Massachusetts girl to send him sexually explicit digital photos, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Jeremy Guzewicz, of the unit block of Dowling Circle, faces 15 to 30 years in federal prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Jan. 21. According to a statement of facts contained within his plea agreement, Guzewicz met the girl online in 2006, when she was 12, through a social website called teenchat.

A Baltimore firefighter has been charged with 10 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography after detectives found explicit files being shared from his computer over an online peer-to-peer network, court records show. Philip Hodge, 54, of the 2200 block of Deerfern Crescent in Northwest Baltimore, was arrested Friday and released after posting $50,000 bond. Police wrote in charging documents that Hodge admitted that he had downloaded child pornography, and a search of his home computer revealed additional files.

A Montgomery County elementary school teacher was charged Thursday in Baltimore County for possession of child pornography, police said. Lawrence Joynes, 54, of Dundalk, teaches music at New Hampshire Estates Elementary school in Silver Spring, according to the school's website. Montgomery police will be investigating whether Joynes committed any offenses in that county. A spokesman from the school system did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday morning.

A Forest Hill man was arrested Monday on a warrant charging him with four child pornography counts that resulted from a Maryland State Police investigation conducted in April and May, state police said. Nicholas Alexander Cukr, 25, of the 2200 block of Issacs Way, is charged with two counts each of promoting/distributing child pornography and possession of child pornography, according to court records. State police investigator Cpl. Keith Thomas was monitoring file sharing networks on the Internet in April when he came across a man, allegedly Cukr, offering images and videos of suspected child pornography, according to Lt. John Wilhelm of the state police.

A former track coach at Archbishop Spalding High School was ordered onto the state's sex offender registry and placed on probation Tuesday after a prosecutor said he exchanged sexually explicit images by cellphone with a female student. Brian Timothy Funk, 40, of Pasadena, entered an Alford plea Tuesday to one count of solicitation of child pornography, not admitting guilt but acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. He will be on the sex offender registry for 25 years.

A Cumberland man was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release for his part in running a child pornography website, prosecutors said. George Sell, 70, pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to transport child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement Wednesday. From December 2006 through August 2008, Sell was the administrator of a website called the "Country Lounge" that was dedicated to trading child pornography images, the government said.

A Baltimore lawyer was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison and a year of home detention for possessing child pornography, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Patrick Joseph Redd, 33, searched the Internet for illegal images of children - some younger than 12 - and downloaded them to his home computer, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in May. He was disbarred from practicing law in Maryland in March. Tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

A former Laurel police officer who pleaded guilty to photographing his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter as she got out of a shower was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for the sexual abuse of a minor. Howard County Circuit Court Judge Diane O. Leasure also sentenced 38-year-old Edward Charles Schmitt to a one-year term for use of a hidden camera. The state sentences will be served concurrently with the seven-year federal sentence Schmitt received earlier on a child pornography charge.

The chief executive of the Padonia Park Club, a family-owned swim and child care center in Cockeysville, has been charged with downloading child pornography from the Internet, according to court documents filed in Baltimore County. Ira Charles F. Rigger Jr., 56, of Thurkill Court in Cockeysville, was released on bail Thursday. The police charging documents say detectives seized a Dell laptop computer, containing images of young girls, that Rigger allegedly used at the Jenifer Road business and at his home.

A 65-year-old Bowie man pleaded guilty Tuesday to possessing and distributing child pornography, and faces a potential 30 years in prison. John Shutt's plea, announced by Rod J. Rosenstein, the U.S. Attorney for Maryland, stems from an investigation that discovered that in February 2010 a man later identified as Shutt distributed images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct to a website where users could download them. A search warrant was executed at Shutt's home in September and computers and other digital media were seized.