KENT COUNTY, Mich. — A West Michigan man who raised more than 20 foster children plead guilty Tuesday in federal court to to three counts of possessing and distributing child porn.
In exchange for his plea, the government dropped the fourth charge against him of advertising material involving the sexual exploitation of children.
Former counselor Jeff Marchione of Alto will be sentenced in March. He faces 20 years in prison for two of the three counts.
According to court documents, Marchione said that he had raised or fostered more than 20 children over a number of years and mentored many more as a licensed counselor.
Marchione is still facing state charges in Kent County for third-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
He was accused of performing a sexual act on a young man he had been mentoring who was between the ages of 13 and 15 years of age.
Marchione had been a counselor and mentor for a number of years working with large numbers of youth in the Grand Rapids community.
He had his home address in Alto listed as the address for his counseling service at one time.
Prior to the Kent County charges, Marchione was accused of possessing tens of thousands of images and videos of child porn on his computer as well as a 150-page manifesto on how to find boys to molest. After federal agents began investigating and interviewing witnesses about the pornography they discovered, the accusations of abuse surfaced in Kent County. Tuesday Marchione pleaded guilty to sending some of that information to people across state lines on or around January 5, 2012 and possessing the images in August of 2012. He had no history of sexual abuse or pornography before these charges, but there was a 2006 domestic violence complaint against him stemming from an incident with his adopted son.
