A former Maryland mayor and LGBTQ activist was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday after pleading guilty earlier this year to 140 charges related to child sex abuse pornography.
Patrick Wojahn, a gay Democrat, served as mayor of College Park up until last March when he resigned to “deal with my own mental health.” He was convicted after investigators linked an account disseminating child porn to his government email address, Fox News reported. Law enforcement officials were able to identify 52 child victims, some of whom are now adults still living with the trauma of being exploited as children.
“But there were hundreds, if not thousands more children that investigators could not identify,” reported the Baltimore Banner. Prosecutors said the total number of victims “surpassed the enrollment of Wojahn’s local elementary school, Hollywood Elementary.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Monica Meyers said more than 500 victims from around the world were on Wojahn’s phone.
The exploited children “experienced sexual abuse all over the world,” including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the Banner reported.
Wojahn, 48, was sentenced to 150 years total, with all but 30 years suspended. He will reportedly be eligible for parole in 7.5 years under state law.
According to authorities, the Democrat “uploaded and shared dozens of photos and videos depicting explicit child sex abuse” to social media apps in January. The materials reportedly included images showing prepubescent boys being raped by adults. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified Prince George’s County Police Department of the illicit online activity in mid-February.
Court records show Wojahn was indicted in March by a grand jury on 80 counts of possessing and intent to distribute child pornography, which were amplified to 140 counts in May through a superseding indictment. He pleaded guilty in August to all 60 counts of distribution of child pornography, 40 of possession of child pornography and 40 of possessing child pornography with the intent to distribute. Of those kids depicted in the hundreds of photos and videos Wojahn possessed and shared, law enforcement identified 52 child victims, some of whom are now adults, in collaboration with the Justice Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Their victim impact statements read in court detailed struggles with extreme anxiety, paranoia, poor sleep, trust issues and a sense of safety, and some said they have been stalked and forced to move their current families and children of their own after being exposed as victims of online child exploitation.
Wojahn’s husband, Dave Kolesar, stood by him in court, saying it was “well-documented how much good” the former mayor has done in the world, according to the Banner.
Wojahn and Kolesar joined a lawsuit against the state of Maryland in 2006 to make marriage a right for same-sex couples in the state.
In an apparent attempt to impugn one of the state’s attorneys, Kolesar brought up her 2012 vote in the Maryland House of Delegates against the Civil Marriage Protection Act, which legalized same-sex marriages in Maryland.
Kolesar also made note of Wojahn’s recent claim that he experienced abuse as a child and argued that “the sentence sends a horrible message to other survivors.”
“In spite of everything, I continue to look up to him,” Kolesar said. “To my husband, I want to say I love you.”
In past media interviews, Wojahn has cited his “mentor-mentee relationship” with Joe Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg,” the New York Post reported in March.
“I actually met Mayor Pete Buttigieg shortly after I was elected mayor in 2015,” Wojahn told the Washington Blade, an LGBT news outlet, back in 2019.
Wojahn said Buttigieg, who is also gay, was tasked with being his “buddy” at a gathering of mayors in Washington years before Buttigieg’s 2020 White House run. Buttigieg was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana at the time.
“I went to the US Conference of Mayors’ Winter Meeting in DC in January [2015] and he was assigned to be my buddy,” Wojahn told the outlet.
Wojahn told the Blade that after meeting Buttigieg, they continued to talk on the phone and later attended a White House event together during the Obama administration.
“I now serve in a leadership role as vice chair of city livability and bicycling in part due to his mentorship,” Wojahn said in 2019.
Four years later, Buttigieg would claim that he didn’t know Wojahn and they just happened to take a photo together at a single event.
“I was just informed by Secretary Buttigieg’s office that he does not know this person and has never spoken to him by phone. They say this was simply one of many pictures at an event,” Elon Musk said on X.
I was just informed by Secretary Buttigieg’s office that he does not know this person and has never spoken to him by phone. They say this was simply one of many pictures at an event.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2023
However, there are multiple pictures of the two looking very chummy together.
NEW: Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg's office appears to be lying after they told Elon Musk that Buttigieg doesn't know pedoph*le Patrick Wojahn who was just sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Buttigieg claims that he has never spoken with Wojahn on the phone and they… pic.twitter.com/TzC7NQEkdZ
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 21, 2023
During the emotional hearing Monday, Wojahn had to listen to prosecutors read victim impact statements for hours.
Standing in an orange jumpsuit, he apologized for his contribution to the victimization of the children.
“I know I contributed to that, and I’m deeply, deeply sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I recognize the damage that I have caused,” he said. Wojahn could not explain what led him to go down a “very dark and dangerous and destructive path” but said he wanted to find out and seek help.
“I do sense the remorsefulness,” said Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge Karen Mason said. “And I do know you take responsibility.”
In a show of support, more than a dozen family members, friends and community members spoke on behalf of the convicted pedophile.
“I want to be the person they know me to be,” he said, before turning to Kolesar to say: “I love you, too, very much.”
Speaking to reporters after the court proceedings, Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy celebrated the “very fair but important sentence.”
“This sentence is instructive: It instructs us that child pornography is not simply about images,” Braveboy said. “It’s about the pain behind the images.”
“No child deserves to be sexually abused,” she added. “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.”