TRENTON, N.J. – A Pennsylvania man today admitted traveling from Pennsylvania to New Jersey in order to engage in illicit sex acts with a minor, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Quentin Anthony Blount, 29, of Easton, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp to an information charging him with one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
In October 2020, Blount began communicating with an undercover officer on an internet-based application. After an extensive conversation with the undercover officer, Blount agreed to pay the undercover officer in order to have sex with the minor, who he believed was 14 years old. Blount then traveled from Easton to Somerset County, New Jersey, in order to meet with the minor. Blount was arrested upon arriving at the predetermined meeting location.
The charge of traveling to engage in illicit sexual activity carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8, 2022.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark, and members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Annmarie Taggart, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Barnes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.