Centre County Man Sentenced For Child Enticement & Pornography 

Wednesday, June 4, 2025, 6:30 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

SCRANTON, PA.- A 41-year-old Howard, Pennsylvania, man learned on Monday that he would be spending the next three decades in federal prison after being sentenced for enticing a preteen child to send him sexually explicit digital images and video files in creating child pornography.

     On Monday, June 2, 2025, Louis Bradley Wetzel, 41, of Howard, Pennsylvania, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Matthew W. Brann to 360 months in federal prison, to be followed by ten years of supervised release for his conviction on the charges of Production of Child Pornography; and Online Enticement of a Minor to Engage in Illegal Sexual Activity.

     In handing down the sentence, Judge Brann also ordered Wetzel to pay $50,000 in restitution to the identified victims of his crimes.

According To Acting U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus

     According to Acting U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus and charging documents filed with the District Court, during an ongoing internet child pornography investigation in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. In December of 2023, Federal Investigators executed a court-authorized search warrant at Wetzel’s Howard, Pennsylvania, home. During the search, Investigators seized multiple electronic devices. An initial examination of the devices uncovered that Wetzel was in possession of a trove of digital images and video files depicting the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

     A subsequent forensic examination of the devices uncovered online conversations between Wetzel and a 12-year-old child in which he coerced the child to produce and distribute to him child pornography. Wetzel also purported, during the chats, to have the ability to offer up children for sale to other adults to engage in sexual acts for money.