Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Posting Ads on Craigslist to Entice a Minor to Have Sex
BALTIMORE, MD—Richard Edward Woodward, age 52, of Brunswick, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to using a computer to entice a minor to have sex. The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins. According to Woodward’s plea agreement, in October and December of 2009, Woodward used his computer to post four advertisements on Craigslist seeking sex with a minor. After the Frederick County Police Department was notified of the postings, an undercover detective established an e-mail account to respond to an advertisement, portraying himself as a 14-year-old boy.
Thereafter, Woodward exchanged a series of sexually explicit e-mails with the “boy” in January of 2010 in which he sent child pornography. On January 29, 2010 Woodward arranged to meet the “boy” at a park in Frederick, Maryland. Woodward told the boy that he could teach him how to perform sex acts and that he would bring boy briefs for the minor, as well as lubricant and condoms. Law enforcement arrested Woodward at the park.
A search warrant was executed and police seized from his car, boys briefs, a pornography video, condoms, and lubricant, and child pornography images from Woodward’s home computer. As part of the plea agreement, Woodward and the government have agreed that if the court accepts the plea agreement Woodward will be sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by supervised release for life. United States District Judge Benson Everett Legg has scheduled sentencing for January 13, 2011 at 2:00 PM This 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. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. Details about Maryland’s program are available at www.justice.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html. United States Attorney Rod J Rosenstein commended the FBI and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation, and recognized Assistant United States Attorney Rachel M Yasser, who is prosecuting the case.
Reported by: FBI
Published on: 2010-10-30
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