U.S.

Department of Justice United States Attorney District of Maryland

Rod J. Rosenstein United States Attorney Vickie E. LeDuc Public Information Officer

36 S. Charles Street Fourth Floor Baltimore, Maryland 21201-2692

410-209-4800 TTY/TDD:410-962-4462 410-209-4885 FAX 410-962-3091 Vickie.LeDuc@usdoj.gov

October 24, 2011 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE www.justice.gov/usao/md

CONTACT AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or MARCIA MURPHY at (410) 209-4885

SILVER SPRING MAN SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON FOR RECEIVING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Jonathan Angier, age 51, of Silver Spring, Maryland, today to five years in prison followed by supervised release for life for receiving child pornography. Judge Messite ordered Angier to pay a fine of $1,000, and that upon his release from prison, Angier must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; and Postal Inspector in Charge Daniel S. Cortez of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Washington Division. According to the plea agreement, inspectors for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service identified a commercial child pornography website and arrested the website owner. In March of 2006, Angier had ordered 22 videos from the website owner, depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On August 21, 2009, Angier responded to undercover emails from the website stating that he was a former customer, and requested a catalog of new videos. Postal Inspectors sent the catalog and Angier ordered and paid for 11 videos, including videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Inspectors traced Angiers email address to his residence and on September 23, 2009, executed a search warrant at his home. Postal Inspectors seized Angiers computer, which contained over 2,800 images and 175 videos depicting children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, including images of prepubescent minors younger than 12 years. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. Details about Marylands program are available at www.justice.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html. United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for its work in the investigation and thanked Special Assistant U.S. Attorney LisaMarie Freitas, who prosecuted the case.