Maryland woman sentenced to more than 3 years in prison for possession of child pornography which she produced

BALTIMORE – A 20-year-old Maryland woman was sentenced to federal prison for possession of child pornography which she produced as a result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Washington County Sheriff's Office with the assistance from the Washington County State's Attorney's Office.

Patricia Ann Tasker, of Hagerstown, Md., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson on Nov. 2 to 42 months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. Judge Nickerson also ordered that upon her release from prison, Tasker must register as a sex offender in the place where she resides, where she is an employee, and where she is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

According to her plea agreement, in June 2010, Tasker moved into a home to take care of an eight-year-old girl. In August 2010, the mother of the girl reported to the Washington County Sheriff's Office that she had seen images of her daughter engaged in sexually explicit conduct on Tasker's laptop computer and provided the laptop to the sheriff's office. After obtaining a search warrant for the computer, sheriff's office personnel examined the computer and found a six minute and 40 second video, which depicted the 8-year-old girl engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Tasker admitted that she created the video by recording it on her laptop and that the victim engaged in the sexual activity at Taskers's request, prompting and/or urging.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Judson T. Mihok and P. Michael Cunningham.