Troy Schwaller Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For 28 Counts Of Possessing Child Porn
COVINGTON- Kenton Circuit Judge Mary Kate Molloy followed a prosecutor’s recommendation and sentenced Troy J. Schwaller, 40, to 20 years in prison. Schwaller pleaded guilty as charged in January 2024 to 17 counts of Possession of Child Pornography (Child <12) and 11 counts of Possession of Child Pornography (Child <18) despite knowing Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Emily J. Arnzen, who prosecuted the case, would recommend the maximum possible sentence permitted under Kentucky law. Arnzen refused to make any plea offers in the case. Schwaller chose to take his chances with the judge rather than a jury.
Covington Police began an investigation after receiving a "cyber tip" from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicating someone had uploaded a known image of child pornography to the Snapchat social media application. Snapchat identified the image in an account with the user name "sirasshole22" and provided an IP address for the user. Detective Austin Ross found the IP address registered to a cellular phone used by Schwaller. Covington Police searched Schwaller's home in the 700 block of Stablewatch Drive in Independence on October 14, 2022 and recovered numerous electronic devices. Subsequent search of those devices located 28 images and videos of children engaged in sexual performances, including some depicting children being sexually assaulted by adults.
In today's sentencing hearing, Arnzen called Detective Ross to the witness stand to describe his investigation. As Ross identified each item of evidence recovered from Schwaller's devices, Arnzen displayed the images and played the videos for the judge. Schwaller's defense attorney asked the court to impose the minimum 5 year sentence and run each count concurrently. Judge Molloy rejected the argument calling the images and videos "disturbing" before imposing the 20 year sentence recommended by the prosecutor, noting Kentucky law does not permit her to impose any more.
After the hearing Arnzen said, "Children get raped all over the world because men like this create a demand for these disgusting videos!" Arnzen emphasized that "Pedophiles make a choice to seek out child sexual assault materials, but the children being raped in those videos don't get a choice!" Arnzen also noted the abuse of the children does not end when the sexual assault is over because "These children must spend the rest of their life wondering how many people they meet have watched the videos of them being raped as a child."
"We don't make plea offers in Kenton County on child porn cases because we want the maximum sentence in every case! It's just unfortunate the Kentucky legislature hasn't removed the 20 year cap so we can give them more," said Arnzen. For more information on NCMEC, go to www.missingkids.org.
For additional information contact:
Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders
rsanders@prosecutors.ky.gov
(859) 292-6580
Posted on Thursday, March 7th, 2024 @ 1:15AM
Categories: Blog, Commonwealth's Commentary, Media/Press Releases, Press Room
