Former High School Coach Gets Long Prison Sentence In Cyber-Sex Case
EAST LANSING (WWJ/AP) - A former high school football coach in Pennsylvania has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for computer-related crimes that stretched to East Lansing.
At his sentencing Wednesday in federal court in Scranton, Pa., Joseph Ostrowski admitted he enticed minors in Pennsylvania and 13 other states to commit sexually explicit acts that were transmitted electronically. He also was accused of secretly taking over Facebook accounts and using them to "harass, threaten, and intimidate" students at Michigan State University.
Federal prosecutors in Michigan say the investigation began in 2011 with campus police, which eventually resulted in the execution of a federal search warrant for Ostrowski's Pennsylvania residence in May 2012.
That search resulted not only in the seizure of evidence of cyber-stalking of MSU students, but also in the discovery that Ostrowski -- who at the time was the head highschool football coach -- was committing numerous child-pornography felonies in Pennsylvania.
The government, noting that Ostrowski victimized or attempted to victimize more than 60 people, described him as "the very definition of an online predator."
Ostrowski pled guilty to both cases in Pennsylvania as part of a plea agreement that allowed for the transfer of the Michigan case to Pennsylvania for guilty-plea and sentencing.
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