A 38-year-old Lebanon man has been charged with distributing child pornography by a federal grand jury, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced on April 3.
Charles Witherson III was arrested after he was found to have distributed child pornography on Feb. 5 and was found to be in possession of images of child pornography, including images involving a minor under the age of 12, on March 29, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam.
The case against Witherson was brought to indictment as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. 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, according to the release, and is led by the U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
The FBI investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Haugsby. According to the release, the maximum penalty under federal law for these offenses is 40 years’ imprisonment followed by a lifetime term of supervised release, and a fine.
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