New Castle, Pa., man sentenced for child porn

Staff report

PITTSBURGH

A New Castle, Pa., man has been sentenced in federal court here to 37 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, after he had earlier pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. imposed the sentence Tuesday on Todd D. Covert, 47, of Harmony Baptist Road.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen R. Kaufman said state police seized a computer and CDs at Covert’s residence July 8, 2009.

An examination of that material showed Covert had 17 videos and 168 still images of child pornography that had been downloaded from the Internet, Kaufman said.

Six of the videos showed adult men penetrating prepubescent children, the U.S. attorney said.

State police were assisted in the investigation by the FBI.

Under federal law, Covert could have been sentenced to as many as 10 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.