A former Democrat Maryland mayor who described Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as his “mentor” was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday for possessing and distributing child sex abuse material.
Patrick Wojahn was the mayor of College Park and a popular leftist politician until he resigned in March, the day before his arrest on child pornography charges.
College Park is just outside Washington, D.C., and home to the state’s flagship University of Maryland campus.
Hey, @PeteButtigieg…
Your good pal and mentee just received a 30-year prison sentence over a child p*rn case involving 500 victims.
Any comment? pic.twitter.com/hB97pHcXcb
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 21, 2023
Wojahn, 48, pled guilty in August to 140 counts related to possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material, court records show. The charges in the indictment included both misdemeanors and felonies, some of which have 10-year maximum penalties.
A Prince George’s County Circuit Court judge officially sentenced him to 150 years behind bars, but she suspended most of that sentence, leaving just 30 years, according to court records. The suspended sentence means that if Wojahn violates the conditions of his release when he is let out, a judge can lock him up again for 120 years. His sentence also requires him to register as a sex offender and includes five years of supervised probation after his release.
In Maryland, convicts of nonviolent crimes are eligible for parole after serving just 25% of their sentence.
Prince George’s County officials said they were tipped off to Wojahn’s crimes in February by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which notified them of a social media account, “skippy_md,” that had uploaded child pornography to the messaging app Kik in January.
Detectives traced the account to Wojahn’s government email address and later searched Wojahn’s home, seizing several electronic devices, including three cell phones.
Police said Wojahn admitted to owning the social media account while being interviewed by detectives during the search of his house.
Authorities found videos and images of more than 500 children on Wojahn’s cellphone, Assistant State’s Attorney Monica Meyers said at a press conference. Detectives and prosecutors identified 52 of the exploited children, and several submitted victim impact statements that prosecutors read aloud in court.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP
“It instructs us that child pornography is not simply about images. It’s about the pain behind the images, the tragedies that have occurred in these young people’s lives that should never have happened to them,” said Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy at a news conference after Wojahn’s sentencing.
“No child deserves to be sexually abused. No child deserves for their images to be displayed on the internet or any platform for hundreds or thousands or possibly millions of people to view,” she said.
Wojahn was serving his second term as mayor of College Park before he was arrested. Before being elected, he served eight years as city councilman. He previously graduated from Georgetown University Law Center.
Several years ago, Wojahn described Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as his “mentor.”
“I actually met Mayor Pete Buttigieg shortly after I was elected mayor in 2015,” Wojahn told the Washington Blade, an LGBT news site, in 2019. “I went to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Winter Meeting in D.C. in January and he was assigned to be my buddy.”
“I now serve in a leadership role as vice chair of city livability and bicycling in part due to his mentorship,” Wojahn told the outlet.
Wojahn and Buttigieg are both gay and married to men.
Wojahn has also visited the White House several times since President Biden took office and rubbed shoulders with other D.C. political players including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and former Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez.
He has also donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and committees.