Centre County sex offender gets additional 20 years in prison for child porn charges
A convicted sexual offender from Halfmoon Township who is serving time in state prison was sentenced Thursday to an additional two decades in federal prison.
Michael Dashem, 36, pleaded guilty in November to one count of receiving child pornography.
State police at the now-defunct Philipsburg barracks found child pornography on Dashem’s tablet in July 2015. He admitted in an interview with police to downloading the child porn and said it was “stupid” to store it.
The FBI unearthed 42 pornographic images on the tablet, including images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
The sentence handed down by U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew Brann is scheduled to begin after Dashem serves the remainder of his state sentence.
He pleaded guilty to one felony count each of aggravated indecent assault of a child and unlawful contact with a minor, along with one misdemeanor count of indecent exposure.
Dashem was sentenced in April 2016 by Centre County Judge Jonathan Grine to spend six-to-12 years in state prison.
Dashem is set to be supervised for an additional decade once he is released from federal prison. He was also sentenced to pay $3,000 in restitution.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Gerald Lord did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Dashem is detained at Albion state prison in Erie County.