A former Delaware County interim sheriff who pleaded guilty to the distribution of child pornography was sentenced to 180 months in prison Thursday in U.S. District Court.
Mark W. Wolfe, 50, formerly of Sunbury, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one charge of distribution of child pornography on March 10 and a pre-sentence report was ordered. Wolfe appeared in court on Jan. 5 where he was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $12,000.
Additionally, after Wolfe is released from prison he will be subject of 20 years of supervised release.
Wolfe originally faced three child pornography charges. The remaining two charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Court documents allege that between Sept. 1, 2010, and July 28, 2015, Wolfe received and distributed videos and pictures of minors engaged in sexually explicit activity.
Undercover agents from the FBI were conducting an investigation into online child pornography and on June 5, 2015, downloaded several pornographic videos involving children from Wolfe’s IP address in Sunbury.
Investigators executed a search warrant of Wolfe’s home on July 31, 2015, and seized a laptop computer owned by Wolfe. Investigators say an examination of the computer yielded 486 videos and 203 images of child pornography. Investigators say the youngest of the children being sexually abused was 8 months old.
Analysis of the laptop also revealed chat messages between Wolfe and several others between September 2014 and June 2015. Investigators say pornographic files were transferred during the chats. Investigators added that Wolfe also told the others that he had performed sexual acts with minors.
Wolfe was Delaware County’s interim sheriff for five days in 2007 before the Republican Party central committee appointed Walter Davis as sheriff.
On July 18, District Judge George C. Smith filed an order recusing himself from the case. A reason for the order was not stipulated in court documents, but the case was reassigned to Chief Judge Edmund A. Sargus.
Officials say that Wolfe served as a deputy in the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office from August 1994 to September 1997, and has had no association with the sheriff’s office since his stint as sheriff in 2007. Wolfe ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in Delaware County in 2000 and 2004.
Wolfe remained in federal custody Friday. Wolfe surrendered himself to U.S. marshals in Columbus on Aug. 10, 2015.