Disturbing Details Emerge in Child Sex Offense Case Against Philly Journalist Michael Hochman

Left: Philadelphia writer and journalist Michael Hochman in a provided photo. Right: Michael Hochman in his most recent Pennsylvania Megan’s Law registry photo.

It’s been four months since we broke the news that the feds arrested Philadelphia journalist Michael Hochman and charged him with one count of receipt of child sex abuse materials. A lot has happened since then.

When we first reported the arrest, detail were scarce on what exactly Hochman was alleged to have done. But court documents filed since that arrest paint a clearer picture of the accusations against Hochman, who has written for Visit Philadelphia, the Inquirer, and Crossing Broad, among other local media outlets, and was a constant presence on social media.

According to those documents, the investigation into Hochman began in June 2023 after a woman in St. Louis, Missouri discovered that her 15-year-old daughter had been engaged in sexually explicit chats with a man, whom authorities later identified as Hochman, who was around 50 years old at the time. Prosecutors say that those chats included the exchange of sexually explicit images and videos. Investigators obtained a search warrant and executed it on Hochman in August 2024.

During the search, the FBI seized several electronic devices from Hochman’s home and allegedly found more than 1,900 images and 130 videos depicting child sexual abuse that he had collected between 2014 and 2023. (During this time, Hochman was on the sex offender registry in Pennsylvania for sexual offenses involving a child in 2001, back when he was a 28-year-old program director for a TV station in Kansas.) According to prosecutors, the videos and photos found in the 2024 search showed adult men sexually assaulting toddlers and prepubescent children.

After his arrest, Hochman’s lawyer negotiated a plea deal with the feds: Hochman would plead guilty to the single count charged in exchange for a sentence of 15 years in federal prison. Hochman has, in fact, pleaded guilty, but the matter has yet to go before the judge, who must approve the deal and issue the sentence.

Earlier this month, Hochman’s attorney submitted a memorandum to the judge, attempting to make the case that his client, who, again, was already on the sex offender’s registry when all of this happened, “will not reoffend” and arguing that Hochman is “a man of high character” and a person who is “extremely generous, capable, and caring…”

His lawyer submitted what he is calling “character letters in support” of the two-time child sex offender. There’s a handwritten letter from his mother and a letter from an old family friend; standard defense lawyer practice. But then there are letters from executives at local organizations and companies on formal letterhead praising Hochman, including a letter from the executive director of a non-profit that works with unhoused children and two from Visit Philadelphia executives.

These latter letters had us scratching our heads, but then we took a closer look at them. They are all addressed “To whom it may concern” and they are all dated at the end of April – at a time when Hochman could have known that an arrest was around the corner but before it became public. The letters also speak in praiseful generalities. This is because they are, in fact, just general letters of recommendation that Hochman solicited as his legal predicament was about to get much worse.

“These letters were absolutely not written in support of this case,” a Visit Philadelphia spokesperson told Philly Mag last week. According to the spokesperson, Hochman had asked for the letters of support in relation to a grant he was supposedly applying for.

“There is what I can best describe as a grant or honor I am applying for, which is requesting testimonial letters, for lack of a better word,” Hochman wrote to his Visit Philadelphia contacts, says the spokesperson.

Hochman is expected to be sentenced later this year or early next. Meanwhile, he remains in custody at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia.