Former Intermediate Unit Resource Instructor Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Transport of Material Depicting Sexual Exploitation of Minors

PITTSBURGH, Pa. - A resident of Grove City, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to 84 months of imprisonment, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, on his conviction of violating federal law regarding the sexual exploitation of a minor, United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today.

United States District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand imposed the sentence on Michael William Boston, 41, on March 5, 2026.

According to information presented to the Court, on October 25, 2022, Boston transported material depicting the sexual exploitation of minors in interstate commerce by uploading the material to a cloud-based server. As part of his plea agreement, Boston also took responsibility for transporting child sexual abuse material on two other dates in 2023 and for the possession of more than 1,500 images and videos containing child sexual abuse material across seven different electronic devices. Many of the images depicted the sexual exploitation of toddler-aged and infant males as young as several months old. Boston's collection of images and videos additionally depicted acts of bestiality and blindfolded children tied to stationary objects.

Boston was previously employed by an intermediate unit as a resource instructor for hearing-impaired students. In this role, he traveled to various schools across nine Pennsylvania counties to work with children from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade who suffered from hearing impairments. Boston also was known to be active in his local community, particularly at local churches. As a result of this prosecution, Boston was fired from his teaching position and forced to surrender his teaching license.

Assistant United States Attorney Kelly M. Locher prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Rivetti commended Homeland Security Investigations and the Pennsylvania State Police's Northwest Computer Crime Unit for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Boston.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.