A Grove City, Pennsylvania resident has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for transporting material depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. Michael William Boston, 41, received an 84-month sentence followed by 10 years of supervised release. The sentencing was handed down by United States District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand on March 5, 2026.
According to court information, Boston uploaded material showing the sexual exploitation of minors to a cloud-based server on October 25, 2022. As part of his plea agreement, he also admitted to transporting child sexual abuse material on two other occasions in 2023 and possessing over 1,500 images and videos containing such content across seven electronic devices. Many images involved very young children and depicted acts including bestiality and children who were blindfolded and tied up.
Boston had previously worked as a resource instructor for hearing-impaired students with an intermediate unit. In this position, he traveled to schools in nine Pennsylvania counties to assist children from pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. He was also active in local churches within his community. Following the prosecution, Boston lost his teaching job and surrendered his teaching license.
Assistant United States Attorney Kelly M. Locher prosecuted the case. United States Attorney Troy Rivetti recognized Homeland Security Investigations and the Pennsylvania State Police’s Northwest Computer Crime Unit for their work leading to Boston’s prosecution.
“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,” according to the press release. “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.” More information about Project Safe Childhood is available at www.justice.gov/psc.
