SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Philip Schmaldinst, age 45, of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on November 10, 2021, to 120 months’ imprisonment to be followed by a five-year term of supervised release, by United States District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion for using the internet to attempt to entice a 12-year-old minor female to engage in prohibited sex acts.
According to Acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, on September 24, 2020, during an on-line communication with a law enforcement officer posing as the mother of a minor female, Schmaldinst agreed to pay money to the mother in exchange for receiving oral sex from the minor and having other sexual contact with the minor and then traveled to a location in Tannersville, PA for the purpose of meeting the mother and minor and paying for sex. Schmaldinst was arrested on scene.
At sentencing, Judge Mannion also ordered Schmaldinst to comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – Philadelphia Division and its state and local law enforcement partners in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Assistant United States Attorney Jeffery St. John prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”
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