SCRANTON- The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Earnest Lee Pittman, Jr., age 46, of Cresco, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on December 14, 2021 to ten years’ imprisonment to be followed by five years of supervised release by United States District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani, for attempted online enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.
According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, between August 4, 2020 and August 12, 2020, Pittman used the internet and a cellular phone to attempt to persuade someone he believed to be a 15-year-old minor to engage in sexual activity. When he arrived for the encounter, Kingston Municipal Police officers arrested Pittman.
The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Kingston Municipal Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenny P. Roberts 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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