The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District Pennsylvania announced the sentence of a Lebanon man for child pornography related offenses. Senior United States District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo imposed a 25 year sentence on Howard D. Davis, age 58, of Lebanon, for attempted enticement of minor to engage in sexual activity and for distribution of child pornography.
According to United States Attorney Peter Smith, Davis was released from state prison in August 2012 after serving three years for soliciting minors over the internet to engage in sexual activity. Within a few months of his release from prison, Davis began to solicit underage girls via internet chat rooms to create sex videos.
Two separate undercover investigations caught Davis trolling these websites. A Nebraska State Patrol officer - posing at a 14 year-old girl - was enticed by Davis to create sex videos and images and send these to Davis’ residence in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Thereafter, Davis mailed a web camera and sex toys to the undercover officer. A second undercover investigation conducted by the Dickson Police Department, in Dickson, North Dakota, also caught Davis engaging in the same activity on a different website.
Local and federal law enforcement in Nebraska coordinated with the United States Postal Inspectors and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General to complete the investigation. In February 2013, a search warrant was executed at Davis’s residence where he was chatting with an unidentified underage girl from overseas. Police recovered a box of web cameras and box of sex toys, all similar to those shipped by Davis to the Nebraska State police. Police also searched his computer and found child pornography, which Davis admitted he would swap with others over the internet.
In October 2013, Davis entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg to enticing a fourteen year old to engage in sexually explicit activity and distribution of child pornography.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspectors in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and Nebraska State Patrol. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael A. Consiglio.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
