2 men sentenced for obtaining, viewing child pornography

1/23/2012

Two Toledo men have been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Toledo to time in prison for downloading and viewing child pornography.

Co-defendants James P. Trompeter, 55, and Stephen Zawistowski, 29, pleaded guilty in July to one count each of knowingly receiving child pornography and possession of child pornography.

On Thursday, Judge James Carr sentenced Trompeter to 15 years in prison on each count, to be served concurrently, and Zawistowski received 20 years' imprisonment on each count, also to be served concurrently.

Authorities said the men were convicted of searching for and downloading child pornography on a computer that both men used at Trompeter's residence.

Each man admitted during interviews with federal agents that he routinely downloaded child pornography from the Internet and stored the images on a portable hard drive.

The initial charges were the result of federal agents twice downloading child pornography using Internet file-sharing technology from a computer using an IP address linked to Trompeter. During a search, agents seized a portable hard drive containing tens of thousands of images and videos of child pornography.

Each man has a prior Lucas County conviction for sexually assaulting children, authorities said.