Monessen Man Sentenced to 6½ Years for Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Videos

 PITTSBURGH - A resident of Monessen, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 78 months’ imprisonment and 15 years of supervised release on his conviction of Possession of Material Depicting the Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

Senior United States District Judge Arthur J. Schwab imposed the sentence on Jack Brian LaForte, 56, of Monessen, Pennsylvania.

According to information presented to the court, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) began investigating Mr. LaForte for violations of online child exploitation offenses after receiving information about an individual who had uploaded an image depicting a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Agents were able to trace the upload of this child sexual abuse material to Mr. LaForte’s residence in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Upon executing a search warrant at Mr. LaForte’s residence in June 2019, Agents seized a laptop computer from Mr. LaForte that contained material, namely videos, of minors engaging in the lewd and lascivious display of their genitals, as well as engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The child sexual abuse material recovered from Mr. LaForte’s computer included videos depicting prepubescent minors who had not attained 12 years of age. At that time, Mr. LaForte spoke to agents and admitted to engaging in the criminal conduct.

Assistant United States Attorney Heidi M. Grogan prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Brady commended the Department of Homeland Security Investigations for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of LaForte.

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 Attorneys' 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.