Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Child Pornography Crime

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Robert M. Harvey, 48, a registered sex offender, pleaded guilty today to possession of child pornography.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on June 29, 2022, Harvey was at Dismas Charities Inc., a Bureau of Prisons residential reentry facility in St. Albans, when facility staff found Harvey in possession of a cell phone. Harvey was not allowed to possess a cell phone without the approval of his probation officer, and any cell phone he possessed was subject to search and seizure.

Law enforcement analyzed Harvey’s cell phone and found it contained images and videos of child pornography. As part of his guilty plea, Harvey admitted that these images and videos include depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Harvey is scheduled to be sentenced on August 25, 2025, and faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to 20 in prison, at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

At the time of this offense, Harvey was on supervised release as a result of his conviction for receipt of child pornography in United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia on March 12, 2007. Harvey was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for that offense. On August 17, 2022, Harvey was sentenced to three years in prison for committing a crime while on supervised release.

Acting United States Attorney Lisa G. Johnston made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Rada Herrald is prosecuting the case.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of 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 those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:25-cr-69.

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