OAN Geraldyn Berry
2:44 PM PT – Friday, March 3, 2023
Former mayor of College Park, Maryland, Patrick Wojahn, has been charged with 40 counts of possession of child exploitative material and 16 counts of distribution of child exploitative material.
The 47-year-old resigned on Wednesday night ahead of being arrested by Prince George’s County police on Thursday on child pornography charges.
“On February 28, 2023, a search warrant was executed on my residence as part of an ongoing police investigation,” he wrote. “I have cooperated fully, and will continue to cooperate, with law enforcement. While this investigation does not involve any official city business of any kind, it is in the best interests of our community that I step aside and not serve as a distraction.”
The City of College Park released a statement following the resignation.
“The City of College Park thanks Mayor Wojahn for his many years of dedicated service,” the city said. “Effective immediately, Mayor Pro Tem Denise Mitchell will serve as presiding officer until a Special Election is held and a new Mayor has been sworn in.”
Wojahn visited the White House on June 25th of 2021, according to visiting logs kept by the White House. He would then return twice more in 2022.
The Democrat, who had been College Park’s mayor since 2015, had given thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and committees, according to the website of the Federal Election Commission, including $200 to Biden’s 2020 campaign, $500 to Raskin’s House campaign in 2016, $250 to Buttigieg’s Win the Era PAC, and more than $1,000 to the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns.
In an interview with the LGBT news website the Washington Blade, Wojahn, who served as Buttigieg’s political mentee, noted their friendship.
A White House spokesperson, when asked about the former official, has said that they “cannot comment on an active criminal matter.”
Since 2021, at least 12 additional mayors, both then-serving and now-retired, have been charged with child sex offenses, ranging from sexual assault to the creation of child pornography.
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