Easton man sentenced to federal prison for attempting to entice a minor
MARYLAND – An Easton man was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly two decades in federal prison for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity.
55-year-old Samuel Hardeman was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release. Hardeman had a previous federal convict in a 2002 case in Georgia for using a computer to entice a child to engage in sexual activity, to which he was sentenced to a total of 174 months in prison.
According to his guilty plea, from December 11 through December 26, 2022, Hardeman engaged in conversations with an undercover law enforcement officer who claimed to have a 10-year-old daughter. Hardeman allegedly expressed how he wanted to have sex with the 10-year-old, sent a video containing child pornography to the undercover officer, and made plans to drive to New York, where the officer reportedly lived, to have sex with the 10-year-old. Hardeman communicated with the officer through phone, video calls, texts, and using encrypted messaging platforms, all while Hardeman was on the sex offender registration for his previous conviction. On December 26th, Hardeman reportedly hesitated about traveling to New York to visit the officer and his daughter. The undercover officer did not hear from Hardeman after that.
On March 14, 2023, a federal search warrant was executed at Hardeman’s residence, leading to the seizure of several electronic devices. A forensic exam of one of the phones led to the discovery of the encrypted messaging account Hardeman used to communicate with the undercover officer, a text message thread between the two of them, photos exchanged, and dozens of images and videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit content. Several other devices and Hardeman’s Cloud storage account were found to contain additional images of child sex abuse material, including bestiality.
The judge ordered that once Hardeman is released from prison, he must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
