Fort Washington man charged with possessing and distributing child pornography

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and Conshohocken Police Chief George Metz have announced the arrest of 24-year-old Jacob Weiss of Ft. Washington (Upper Dublin Township) for possessing and distributing child pornography and related charges.

According to the notice, the investigation started when a specially trained Conshohocken detective was surveilling a peer-to-peer file-sharing Internet site. On several occasions, the detective was able to connect to an account that was sharing child pornography. From there, the detective was able to downloaded nine video files and five photo files from this account at various times.

The detective then traced the subscriber information for the IP address associated with the account that shared the child pornography files to Weiss’ residence.

On July 9th, a search warrant was served on the residence and a computer tower found in Weiss’ bedroom was seized. The notice goes on to say that a
forensic analysis of the computer found that it held 692 images and 38 videos that were determined to include children, including children under 10 years-of-age in various states of nudity and involved in sexual acts.

Weiss was charged with 300 felony counts of possessing child pornography, five counts of distributing child pornography, criminal use of a communications facility, and possessing an instrument of crime.

He was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Patricia A. Zaffarano, who set bail at $50,000 unsecured, and the defendant was released. The defendant waived his preliminary hearing. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Caroline Goldstein, who is assigned to the DA’s Family Protection Unit.