PORTLAND — A Lewiston man was sentenced in federal court Wednesday after he pleaded guilty last summer to possessing child pornography in 2019.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Rodney Crowley, 33, to four years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.
According to court records, investigators obtained information from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police regarding child pornography activity involving users of an internet messaging application, prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wolff wrote in court papers that investigators, working on a tip from the RCMP, learned a user of an internet messaging application who received child pornography videos lived in Maine. The account was traced to Crowley. Investigators executed search warrants for Crowley and his home in August 2019, Wolff wrote.
Agents went to Crowley’s workplace in Augusta, where they seized a mobile phone and laptop computer he had with him. After initially denying any involvement in child pornography, he admitted to having viewed it for several years, Wolff wrote.
He said he’d received and sent emails containing child pornography depicting children up to age 10, but denied ever having produced such images. He told investigators they would find child pornographic images on his phone due to his involvement in a chat group.
A Maine State Police Computer Crime technician found child pornography on a card in Crowley’s phone, including a video containing clips of men engaged in sexual activities with boys ranging in age from 3 months to 4 years old.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
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