Baltimore County Man Sentenced to 23 Years in Federal Prison for Production of Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland – Chief U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar today sentenced Kevin Daniel Mongold, Jr., age 22, of Halethorpe, Maryland, to 23 years in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for production of child pornography.  Chief Judge Bredar also ordered that, upon his release from prison, Mongold must continue to register as a sex offender in the places 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 Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Chief Melissa R. Hyatt of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to his guilty plea, on October 18, 2018, Dropbox made a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a user, later identified as Mongold, uploaded numerous images of an unknown prepubescent child who was being sexually exploited in the photos.  Investigators worked to identify and locate the unknown child.  After finding the child, law enforcement executed a search at Mongold’s residence and seized his iPhone and laptop computer.  A forensic analysis of Mongold’s electronic devices revealed that Mongold had repeatedly sexually abused the five-year-old child for nearly a year, between September 2017 and September 2018, in order to produce visual depictions documenting the abuse. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.       

United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended the FBI and the Baltimore County Police Department for their work in the investigation, and thanked the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office for its assistance.  Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Duey, who prosecuted the federal case.

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