Child porn case leads to county time
A Carbon County man, already serving a federal prison term of 15 years for child pornography, was sentenced on Monday in Carbon County court for sexual assault, more child porn charges and threatening a district judge.
Todd M. Kowar, 46, of Lake Harmony, was sentenced by Judge Joseph J. Matika to serve a total of one day less 12 to one day less 24 months in the county prison on charges of sexual abuse of a child/copy of obscene material depicting a minor, child pornography, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and corruption of a minor.He was also sentenced on charges of terroristic threats for threatening the life of District Judge Joseph Homanko of Weatherly.The prison term will be followed by five years of probation. Kowar previously pleaded guilty to the charges.Kowar, however, will not be serving any more time in the county prison since he was given credit for 793 days already spent in jail on the charges and was paroled.He will be returned to federal custody and resume serving his 15-year term.He is currently an inmate in the Lackawanna County prison in Scranton on the federal sentence.Kidder Township police filed all the charges involving the sexual assault of a young girl charges while Nesquehoning police filed the charges in connection with the threats of the DJ, which occurred at the county prison.In the threats case, Kowar told a fellow inmate at the prison that he was going to kill Homanko because he presided over a civil matter in which he allegedly lost his home and also on the child abuse charges.In February Senior U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik sentenced Kowar to a minimum of 15 years in a federal prison after previously pleading guilty to persuading and inducing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing images of such conduct.The crimes were committed between 2008 and December 2012.Kosik also ruled after his release from prison Kowar must serve 10 years of supervised release (probation).Kosik also ruled that his sentence would run consecutive to any other sentence imposed on Kowar in the future.Kowar also has been ruled a sexual violent predator under Megan's Law and will have to register with the state police for the rest of his life.The registration period begins when he is released from his federal prison term.Matika also ordered Kowar to submit to a sexual offenders evaluation, supply a DNA sample, make restitution of $1,100 to the Victims' Compensation Board, get a mental health evaluation, pay court costs of about $1,000, pay a $50 monthly supervision fee when serving the five years probation, and have no contact with the victim or her family in sexual abuse case.Kowar's pleaded to the guilty to the county charges on May 22, 2014.This sentencing was delayed because of the pending federal charges. On Feb. 11 he was sentenced in federal court to the 15 years in jail and 10 years of supervised release.