Carroll County Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Sexually Exploiting Children to Produce Child Pornography

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Daniel Walter Blake, age 33, of Hampstead, Maryland, today to 30 years in prison followed by supervised release for life for two counts of sexually exploiting a child to produce child pornography. Judge Quarles ordered that upon his release from prison, Blake must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

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; Colonel Terrence Sheridan, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Carroll County State’s Attorney Jerry Barnes.

According to Blake’s plea agreement, on March 10, 2010, Maryland State Police troopers went to Blake’s home to investigate a report they received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that Blake was distributing child pornography involving prepubescent males. Blake admitted that he did have child pornography and produced 27 images of child pornography, as well as three micro SD media cards believed to contain child pornography. Troopers obtained a search warrant and seized a number of items from Blake’s home. A forensic examination of Blake’s laptop and hard drive revealed over 1,000 images and over 500 video files of child pornography, including the images reported by NCMEC. Most of these images involved prepubescent boys and portrayed sadistic or masochistic conduct, or other depictions of violence. The forensic review also showed that Blake used his computer to distribute some of these images.

Blake also admitted to abusing children, including two prepubescent boys whom he coerced to engage in sexually explicit conduct so that Blake could photograph that conduct. Those images were also found on Blake’s computer.

As part of his plea agreement, Blake acknowledges that at his sentencing on related state charges, scheduled for June 1, 2011, the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office will recommend a sentence of 60 years in prison, concurrent to his federal sentence, with all but 40 years suspended.

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, Maryland State Police and the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Judson T. Mihok and Bonnie S. Greenberg, who prosecuted the case.