Western District of Pennsylvania | Clinton resident sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for possession of child abuse material

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A former resident of Clinton, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced by a federal court to 124 months in prison, followed by lifelong parole, for his conviction for possessing material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, U.S. Attorney Eric G. Olshan announced today.

U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan imposed the sentence on Roderick T. Long, 59.

According to information submitted to the court, Long, who previously served a 121-month federal prison sentence for receiving material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor, was found on March 9, 2020, in possession of more than 500 videos and still images in computer graphics and digital files that depicted the sexual exploitation of minors, many of whom were under the age of 12. Pennsylvania State Police obtained a search warrant for Long’s home, where they found the sexually exploitative material stored on his laptop and cellphone.

Before imposing the sentence, Judge Ranjan stated that the nature of Long’s offending, the harm and trauma inflicted on the child victims, and Long’s previous conviction for receiving sexually exploitative images of children, warranted a significant prison sentence and lifelong parole.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch prosecuted the case on behalf of the government.

District Attorney Olshan praised the Pennsylvania State Police for the investigation that led to the successful prosecution of Long.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Abuse and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to investigate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.