On January 14, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania sentenced Robert Mansberger, 59, of Cassville, Pennsylvania, to 8.5 years of federal imprisonment and 10 years of supervised release for the attempted enticement of a minor. Mansberger’s sentence follows his guilty plea in August of 2023 to one count of attempted enticement of a minor.
The charges stemmed from an undercover operation conducted on November 10, 2023. This operation involved undercover law enforcement posting an advertisement on a website known to publicize the sexual services of minors.
Mansberger responded to the advertisement with multiple messages in which he stated that he wanted to engage in sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl. Mansberger communicated with officers in their undercover capacity to arrange a meeting point in Patton Township. When he arrived, he paid a deposit to an undercover officer that he believed would give him access to the 13-year-old girl. Mansberger was subsequently arrested and taken into custody. He then admitted that he intended to pay $175 for sex with a 13-year-old.
The charge against Miller was brought as a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. This initiative was started to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and child abuse rampant throughout the United States. Project Safe Childhood is led by the United States Attorneys’ Office and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and gathers federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children.
While the CSE Institute applauds the United States Attorney’s Office for their decision to prosecute Mansberger for his attempted sex crimes against children, we are disappointed that he was not charged under the federal human trafficking statute for the sex trafficking of a minor.
Under federal law, a person is guilty of trafficking if they recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, or solicit a person who is subject to sexual servitude through the means of force, fraud, or coercion. To convict an individual of child sex trafficking, the prosecution only has to prove one of the above acts. Any form of commercial sexual exploitation of minors constitutes sex trafficking because minors cannot consent to being bought or sold for sexual acts.
In this case, the facts clearly show that Mansberger attempted to coerce, entice, solicit, recruit an individual he believed to be a 13-year-old. Plainly, this satisfies the elements of the federal human trafficking statute for the sex trafficking of a minor.
The CSE Institute commends both the United States Attorney’s Office for prosecuting Mansberger, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, Patton Township Police Department, Centre County District Attorney’s Office, Williamsport Police, and the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office for investigating, arresting, and charging Miller.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.