A former Tampa resident has been meted out a 20-year prison sentence after a federal court ruling on charges of transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and sexual exploitation of a minor. The United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania announced the former resident, Thomas Edward Grossman III, 49, will also be under 10 years of supervised release after his imprisonment.
United States District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter handed down the sentence, which further includes $3,000 in restitution and a $5,200 special assessment to Grossman. In what appears to be an abhorrent breach of trust, Grossman is reported to have transported a female minor from Pennsylvania to West Virginia with the clear intent to engage in criminal sexual activity severely. Alongside this, he persuaded a minor to partake in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of creating a visual record of such conduct and to entice a minor into criminal sexual activity.
Assistant United States Attorney Christian A. Trabold led the case prosecution. In commendation, United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan stated, "This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse," as per U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The investigation, which led to Grossman's successful prosecution, saw collaboration among several law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pennsylvania State Police, West Virginia State Police, and the Summersville, West Virginia, Police Department. These efforts are part of a continued push under Project Safe Childhood to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to serve to rescue the victims. For more information about the project, the Department of Justice encourages visiting www.justice.gov/psc.
