Community Activist Gets 3 Years In Prison For Child Porn
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - An entrepreneur well-known for serving on community nonprofit boards must spend three years in federal prison for possessing child pornography and still faces trial later this month on charges that he solicited a 15-year-old boy to have sex on a gay networking site.
Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice Cohill Jr. imposed the sentence Wednesday despite more than 100 letters from Fayette County supporters seeking leniency for 36-year-old Jeremy Burnworth.
The computer business owner from Uniontown was stopped by police in Reserve Township, near Pittsburgh, for driving the wrong way last June.
The officers say they noticed a 15-year-old passenger and that both Burnworth and the teen appeared nervous. When officers began questioning the passenger, they say he lied about his age.
Investigators say he then admitted he met Burnworth on Grindr, an all-male social network, and that he left his Reserve Township home allegedly with the intent of having sex with Burnworth.
Burnworth's attorneys says the boy had falsely claimed was 19.
Police found sex toys and other aids in the vehicle.
Burnworth was prosecuted federally for pornography found on his phone, some of it involving children as young as 6.
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