A federal judge sentenced a Portland man who sent explicit messages to a 10-year-old girl to five years in prison for possession of child pornography.
Andrew Hazelton, 28, pleaded guilty in July to the single felony. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office found in 2019 that he sought explicit photos from the child on social media, but for unknown reasons that incident did not result in criminal charges. The allegations resurfaced in 2021, when a former employer reported Hazelton to the FBI because he feared a workplace shooting. An investigator then cited the explicit messages to the girl in a search warrant for Hazelton’s phone and uncovered dozens of downloaded videos and images depicting child pornography.
His arrest attracted attention in part because Hazelton is a former member of a white supremacist group.
But U.S. District Judge John Woodcock did not mention that affiliation during the virtual hearing Friday. He mentioned that Hazelton had been fired from his job but said those circumstances were not relevant to the sentencing at hand. Instead, the judge focused on the illegal files and Hazelton’s chat with the child in particular.
“This conduct is every parent’s nightmare,” Woodcock said. “Every parent of a 10-year-old girl, when that girl goes online, worries that somewhere out there, there would be someone like Mr. Hazelton trying to chat their 10-year-old girl up and sexualizing her.”
Hazelton had been allowed to remain out of jail on a $25,000 unsecured bond and under the supervision of his father. He reported to the Cumberland County Jail in August after his plea hearing and has remained there awaiting sentencing.
He delivered a brief statement during the hearing to apologize to the victims he harmed. He said he was not in a good state of mind at the time and has focused on getting the treatment he needs.
“I only wish to learn from all this and put it behind me,” Hazelton said.
The judge said he considered two written victim impact statements, as well as two letters from members of Hazelton’s family. None of those people spoke during the hearing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Wolff asked for a sentence of more than six years. He said he might have recommended a lesser penalty but for the explicit messages Hazelton sent to the young girl on social media.
“What most cases don’t have that we do have here is the aggravating conduct that is in that chat,” Wolff said. “That chat is very disturbing.”
Federal public defender David Beneman argued for a sentence of two years. He spoke at length, describing how Hazelton became addicted to drugs after a breakup in college. He said Hazelton eventually turned to his family for help and sought treatment for his mental health and substance use disorders. Hazelton is originally from Massachusetts, but he came to Maine to seek out sober living and a new environment.
Beneman said Hazelton messaged the girl during a relapse and a manic episode, and he has since been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Beneman emphasized that Hazelton does not have any other criminal record and has had treatment and medication.
“A sentence that is longer than necessary has been shown by all studies to not only be unhelpful but to make things worse,” Beneman said. “What will really matter is what Andrew Hazelton does with himself after this period of incarceration.”
The judge said he did not believe addiction and untreated bipolar disorder entirely explained why Hazelton began the predatory conversation with the young girl. He said Hazelton’s exchange of messages with the girl led him to a harsher sentence, and he encouraged Hazelton to continue to engage in his treatment.
“I think you also need to figure out what it was that drove you to want to seek these images out, so you’ll never do it again,” Woodcock said.
Hazelton is a white supremacist and former member of NSC-131, which was formed in Massachusetts and pushes racist tropes that were touted by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party.
He was first identified by an anonymous group of anti-fascist activists on Twitter who scour social media and monitor extremist groups to publicly out alleged white nationalists and Nazi sympathizers. Sometime in April, someone also began posting flyers on telephone poles close to his home near the University of New England in Portland, identifying him as a white nationalist. NSC New England, the local chapter of the hate group, expelled him by name after his arrest in a statement posted to Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform.
When he is released from prison, Hazelton will be on supervised release for five years. He will be required to register as a sex offender and follow strict conditions, including one that prohibits him from possessing guns or drugs.
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