Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
An Everett resident, Robert Sokolowski, 52, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston on September 10, 2025, to charges related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The charges include possession, distribution, and receipt of CSAM. Sokolowski committed these offenses within months of being released from federal prison.
U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor has scheduled sentencing for December 17, 2025.
In September 2024, Sokolowski lost his cell phone on an MBTA Green Line trolley. An employee who found the phone discovered images of CSAM while trying to identify the owner. Authorities determined that the device contained hundreds of images and videos depicting children as young as toddlers.
This marks Sokolowski’s third federal conviction for CSAM-related offenses. He was previously convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 46 months in prison for possession of CSAM. In 2015, he was convicted again and received a sentence of 150 months in prison. The current offenses occurred seven months after his release from prison for the second conviction.
Due to prior convictions, the charge of possession carries a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years and up to twenty years in prison, with at least five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine that could reach $250,000. The charges for receipt and distribution each carry a mandatory minimum sentence of fifteen years and up to forty years in prison, with similar terms for supervised release and fines. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England announced the plea agreement. The MBTA Transit Police provided special assistance during the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Maynard is prosecuting the case.
The prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation through coordination among federal, state, and local agencies to prosecute offenders and rescue victims. More information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at https://www.justice.gov/psc.
