Mansfield woman pleads guilty to federal charges of child exploitation

A Mansfield woman pleaded guilty this week to federal charges of sexually exploiting a 9-year-old child, officials with the U.S. Attorneys Office in North Texas said.

Marisa Witkop, 31, produced four explicit videos of the child and distributed some of them using a social media application, according to court documents.

Witkop was indicted on the charges last October, and faces a maximum of 30 years in federal prison on each count, officials said. Sentencing is scheduled for June 9 in Fort Worth.

The United States Secret Service and the Mansfield Police Department handled the investigation, according to a statement.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in 2006 to combat a “growing epidemic” of child sexual exploitation, according to the statement.