PHILADELPHIA — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Eastern), published as received.
PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Gary Margerum, 69, of Levittown, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Chief Judge Wendy Beetlestone to one count of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
The defendant was charged with those offenses by indictment in June of last year.
As detailed in court filings and statements, on or about January 2, 2025, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip concerned a messaging app account, later identified as belonging to defendant Margerum, that had shared child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”), specifically, a sexually explicit image of a prepubescent female.
On or about April 4, 2025, Bucks County investigators, along with agents of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), executed a search warrant at the defendant’s residence, with his iPhone among the items seized. During a forensic examination of the phone, law enforcement recovered approximately 187 images that qualify as child pornography. These images depicted prepubescent children, including children as young as infants and toddlers, being sexually abused by adults.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on December 17 and faces a maximum possible term of 40 years in prison and up to a lifetime of supervised release, with a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment and five years of supervised release. In addition, he faces mandatory financial penalties and mandatory registration as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) and Megan’s Law.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit projectsafechildhood.gov.
The case was investigated by the Bucks County Detectives and HSI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ruth Mandelbaum and Alisa Shver.
