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Purcellville man sentenced in child porn case
A Purcellville man will spend five years in prison for possessing child pornography on his computer.
Judge James H. Chamblin sentenced Galen Grant Gearhart, 45, to a year in prison in Loudoun County Circuit Court Oct. 12 for each of 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
Chamblin suspended five years of the 10-year sentence and placed Gearhart on 20 years of supervised probation upon his release. A condition of the probation is that Gearhart will have no access to the Internet for those 20 years. Chamblin also instructed him to follow through with any possible treatment while he is in custody.
A Loudoun Grand Jury indicted Gearhart in June after Loudoun County sheriff's investigators and the Purcellville Police Department were alerted by Pennsylvania authorities that they had arrested a man for possessing child pornography images that were traced to Gearhart's computer, Sheriff's Office spokesman Kraig Troxell said.
Shortly after, Gearhart pleaded guilty to the charges.
Gearhart's attorney, David Hubbard, urged Chamblin to sentence his client lightly at Friday's sentencing, calling Gearhart “an upstanding member of the community who has made a terrible mistake.”
Hubbard argued that Gearhart had cooperated with authorities throughout the investigation, had placed himself in treatment programs for help and was very committed to his wife and family.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Nicole Wittmann agreed that Gearhart had been cooperative but argued that the sentence should be severe; even though the indictment only covered 10 of the pictures Gearhart possessed, there were thousands he could have been charged for.
Wittmann said a vast majority of the 6,859 pornographic images on Gearhart's computer contained females under the age of 18. Many of the females were only 6 or 7 years old, Wittmann said.
“Each one of those photographs represents someone's baby,” she said, asking Chamblin to hold Gearhart accountable for every photograph and every victim.
Gearhart was very remorseful in a statement he made before sentencing.
“I think we can agree that I made some bad decisions,” he said.
After the sentencing, Hubbard hinted that he would file an appeal in the case and asked Chamblin to set an appeal bond so Gearhart could remain free. Chamblin denied the bond motion.
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