Former Maryland mayor indicted by grand jury on child pornography charges

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WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - A Maryland grand jury has indicted a former mayor of College Park on 80 counts of possession of child pornography and intent to distribute, prosecutors in Prince George's County said on Wednesday.

A representative of the former mayor, Patrick Wojahn, could not immediately be reached. His lawyer told the New York Times earlier this month after Wojahn's arrest that he was fully cooperating with law enforcement.

An investigation leading to the charges began in February after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified a social media account operating in the county that trafficked in suspected child pornography. The account belonged to Wojahn, the county police said.

He subsequently resigned as mayor of the city, which is home to the main campus of the University of Maryland.

Wojahn was arrested after investigators recovered cell phones, a storage device, a tablet and a computer from his home, police said.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Stephen Coates

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Kanishka Singh is a breaking news reporter for Reuters in Washington DC, who primarily covers US politics and national affairs in his current role. His past breaking news coverage has spanned across a range of topics like the Black Lives Matter movement; the US elections; the 2021 Capitol riots and their follow up probes; the Brexit deal; US-China trade tensions; the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan; the COVID-19 pandemic; and a 2019 Supreme Court verdict on a religious dispute site in his native India.

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