WASHINGTON – Patrick J. O’Malley, the elected County Recorder of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, has pleaded guilty to charges of importing and transporting obscene materials, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, William J. Edwards, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and C. Frank Figluizzi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Cleveland Division announced today.
The information charges that from on or about Feb. 8, 1998, through Nov. 16, 2004, in the Northern District of Ohio and elsewhere, O’Malley used an interactive computer service for the carriage in interstate and foreign commerce of numerous obscene, lewd, lascivious and filthy pictures, writings and other matters of indecent character.
O’Malley admitted the charges during a plea hearing in front of the Honorable David D. Dowd Jr. O’Malley was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond and required to surrender his passport. Sentencing was set for Aug. 22, 2008.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence in this case will be determined by the court.
Effective today, O’Malley resigned his position as the Cuyahoga County Recorder.
This case is being prosecuted by Northern District of Ohio Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Sullivan and Jill Trumbull-Harris, Trial Attorney in the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). This case was investigated by the FBI Cleveland Division and CEOS’s High Tech Investigative Unit.
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