Men From Dundalk, Essex Sentenced for Child Sexual Abuse, Porn

Two men—one from Dundalk and one from Essex—have been sentenced in unrelated cases of abusing minors, some as young as 5, for the purposes of producing child pornography.

U. S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander on Thursday sentenced Larry James Kerfoot, 38, of Dundalk, and Robert Marzola, 31, of Essex, to 28 and 29 years in prison, according to a press release from Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.

Hollander also ordered both men to have lifetime supervised release and to register as a sex offender where each lives, works and attends school, according to the statement.

The sentences were announced by a collaborative law enforcement team, including Baltimore County Police Department Chief Jim Johnson and Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

In late May and early June 2012, an undercover Baltimore County detective downloaded child pornography from Internet files on the home computers of Kerfoot and Marzola, respectively, according to the statement.

After getting a search warrant, officers on June 27, 2012 confiscated computers and digital media files containing 19 videos and 80 images of child pornography  that Kerfoot had received online. The officers also found a video produced by Kerfoot of a 12-year-old girl whom he had coerced to engage in sexually explicit behavior with him on at least five occasions, according to the statement.

After executing a search warrant at Marzola's home on July 19, 2012, officers seized a camera, computers and digital media. The investigation found that between December 2011 and July 2012, Marzola sexually abused a minor boy at his home to produce images of himself and the minor engaged in sexually explicit behavior, according to the statement. He saved the images to his laptop.

Marzola first started abusing the boy when he was 6, according to the statement; Marzola told the boy not to tell anyone about their "game."

During the investigation, officers also discovered another boy they say Marzola abused beginning when the second boy was 5.

Rosenstein commended the joint team of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, Baltimore County police and the Baltimore County's State's Attorney Office as well as the U.S. attorneys who prosecuted the cases.