Woodsboro Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

 Previously Convicted of Possessing Thousands of Child Pornography Files, Jeffrey White Admitted Possessing 7,000 Files of Child Pornography, As Well As a Child-Sized Sex Doll

Baltimore, Maryland – Jeffrey John White, age 53, of Woodsboro, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to the federal charge of possession of child pornography.  At the time of his federal offense, White was on supervised probation for a previous conviction for similar conduct in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

The plea was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Jonathan F. Lenzner; Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Frederick County Sheriff Charles A. “Chuck” Jenkins; and Frederick County State’s Attorney J. Charles Smith III.

According to his guilty plea, White was previously convicted of two counts of possession of child pornography in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County on September 25, 2014. The conviction arose from White’s possession of almost 10,000 files of child sex abuse material.  For that conviction, White was sentenced to five years imprisonment, suspended and five years of supervised release. On September 30, 2015, White was found to have violated his probation and was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 18 months suspended, followed by four years of supervised probation.

From April 14, 2020 through July 2020, while on supervised probation for his previous child pornography conviction, White began to use a peer-to-peer file sharing network to access, distribute and possess child pornography.  On three separate dates during April 2020, investigators with the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office were able to establish twenty direct connections with a device, later determined to be White’s laptop and SD card, to view and download known files of child pornography, including a one hour and thirty-nine second video depicting a prepubescent 12-year-old victim displaying her genitals.

On July 6, 2020 investigators from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at White’s Woodsboro residence and seized White’s laptop and SD card.  At that time, White claimed ownership of his laptop, however he claimed he did not know how to access the encrypted laptop. White also claimed to have no knowledge of child pornography activity on the file sharing network.  Additionally, a child-sized sex-doll with an anal and vaginal opening was located during the execution of the search warrant.

Federal agents were able to decrypt White’s laptop and forensically examine its hard drive, recovering 7,000 unique images and more than 240 unique videos of child pornography.  Child pornography found on White’s laptop was similar to the images investigators initially downloaded from White’s IP address. In addition, thousands of child erotica files were also discovered on White’s laptop and SD card. 

As part of his plea agreement, White will be required to 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). 

White faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher has not yet scheduled a sentencing date for White.

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.      

Acting United States Attorney Jonathan F. Lenzner commended the FBI, Frederick State’s Attorney’s Office, the Frederick Sheriff’s Office, and the Frederick County Cyber Crimes Task Force for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Lenzner thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Loveland, Jr. and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce King, who are prosecuting the case.