Rashid Lamont McFadden, a 29-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland, has been sentenced to 114 months in prison for distributing child sexual abuse materials. The U.S. District Court delivered the sentence following McFadden's guilty plea on May 29, 2024, to one count of distribution of child pornography. In addition to the prison term, Judge Carl J. Nichols ordered McFadden to serve 15 years of supervised release.
The case was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean T. Ryan from the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division.
Court documents reveal that on February 16, 2023, an undercover officer from the FBI Washington Field Office discovered McFadden posting exploitative videos in an online group dedicated to such material. The officer engaged McFadden in a private chat where he admitted to knowing the children in the videos and producing some himself.
Baltimore Police arrested McFadden on February 17, 2023, for an unrelated issue. A subsequent search warrant led law enforcement to seize his cell phone and access his cloud storage account, which contained numerous abusive images and videos.
McFadden is also facing additional charges for possession of child pornography in a separate case pending in Maryland's Circuit Court for Baltimore County.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force with assistance from local police departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Shinskie prosecuted the case.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative aimed at combating online exploitation and abuse of children through coordinated efforts among federal, state, and local resources.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.