Brunswick Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Posting Ads on Craigslist to Entice a Minor to Have Sex

BALTIMORE, MD—U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg sentenced Richard Edward Woodward, age 52, of Brunswick, Maryland, today to 10 years in prison, followed by supervised release for life, for using a computer to entice a minor to have sex.

The sentence 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 boy briefs, a pornography video, condoms and lubricant, and child pornography images from Woodward’s home computer.

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 U.S. Attorney Rachel M. Yasser, who prosecuted the case.