Girlmeat Hunter

Gilberto Valle, a 30 year old now former New York City police officer whose on-line name was Girlmeat Hunter, was convicted in March of 2013 of conspiracy to kidnap and illegal access of a federal government database. As a police officer Valle had engaged in on-line arrangements with a man who offered Valle his 3 year old stepdaughter as a sex slave and his two nieces, age 7 and 9, for rape. Valle also discussed plans to murder his wife, saying he would tie up her feet, slit her throat and watch the blood rush from her body.

Valle’s wife had installed spyware on their home computer and discovered his on-line activity. She gave the computer to the FBI and fled the state with their one year old baby. Valle’s computer was “loaded with crime-scene pictures of dead and mutilated women, twisted images of women being tortured and sexually assaulted.”

Valle illegally accessed the encrypted National Crime Information Database to research kidnapping targets. He had over 100 potential victims including names, photos, birth dates and bra sizes. Valle claimed, in chat sessions, that he was “drafting and revising an operation plan to abduct and cook an identified woman.” He had a file called “Abducting and Cooking: A Blueprint” and had downloaded chloroform recipes to subdue his victims.

In one on-line chat Valle said “I am aspiring to be a professional kidnapper.” A “client” asked Valle to kidnap and deliver a woman to be raped and murdered. Valle agreed to do so for $5,000 and said, “Just so that you know, she may be knocked out when I get her to you. I don’t know how long the solvent I am using will last but I have to knock her out to get her out of her apartment safely.” When the “client” tried to lower the price Valle said “I really need the money.” The “client” wrote “Just make sure she doesn’t die before I get her.”

Despite all this, last week Valle walked free. Judge Paul Gardephe overturned the 2013 conviction and gave Valle a misdemeanor charge and released him on time-served, twenty-one months, and one year supervised release. Prosecutors plan to appeal the decision. As for former New York City Police Officer Valle, he plans to become a criminal defense attorney and pursue visitation rights of his 3 year old daughter.

Gilberto Valle is Not the Exception

The extent of child rape, increasingly of very young children, in order to produce child porn has reached crisis levels in America.

American children are being trafficked, often by their own relatives, for sex abuse, and video or live-streaming production of that abuse, in staggering numbers.

But that is not the headline.

The headline is respected members of our communities appear to be heavily engaged as producers and consumers of child porn and all too often they, and not our children, are being protected.

I’ve been particularly concerned about men, and some women, in powerful positions in our national security structures. My argument has been the apparent numbers engaged in child porn compromises the security of our homeland.

In this article I overview the scope of state and local police who have been arrested for their participation in America’s criminal child porn industry. My next article will examine federal law enforcement.

When someone reports child porn and/or child sex abuse to law enforcement one expects action to be taken to protect the child and prosecute the perpetrator.

What happens when child sex abuse is reported to a police officer who is engaged in the child porn industry?

Search Method and Data Problems

As with my other articles, because law enforcement is either not collecting and/or not releasing information about child porn arrests and prosecutions, I have used simple Google and Twitter searches to locate public media reports of police officers arrested for child porn.

When I could easily locate original court documents, I supplemented the media reports; however, often the court documents are sealed or otherwise not easily accessible. At times, I called local police departments or prosecutors requesting, but not always receiving, follow-up information.

The reports I share here are, by no means, a comprehensive account of police arrested for child porn. These are, simply, what appears to be a very small representative sample. A snap-shot in time. They provide a sense of the scale of child porn use within police department across America; one that represents a serious national security issue for us all.

I organized the information by rank. If children are noted to be four years old or under I included these reports in the section on infant and toddler porn. Likewise, if child porn snuff was noted, I separated this into its own category.

Child Porn Snuff

• Chris Bowersox, a 38 year old Bakersfield, California police officer, was convicted and sentenced to four years for child porn possession. Bowersox was discovered by federal investigators on-line discussing raping, mutilating and killing young boys. In one chat session another pedophile wrote, “Every time I talk someone into rape, I always get a bit sad when they’re not into this.” Bowersox responded, “Oh, I’m … into it, big time.” In another chat, Bowersox discussed how to locate a child to rape, torture and kill for child porn snuff production. Username zdasher18 wrote “I know it can’t happen here, it’s got to be somewhere else with a bought kid or something. We’d definitely get caught if we did it here.” Bowersox replied, “Cambodia … Thailand … Mexico … deep deep Mexico.” Images of local high school boys were found on Bowersox’s computer. Upon his 2014 release for the child porn conviction, he almost immediately violated his parole by using on-line adult porn.

Infant and Toddlers

•John Casey, a 47 year old Police Officer with Greece, New York’s Police Department, and retired military, was arrested, 17 September 2014, and plead guilty, 27 March 2015, to one felony count of child porn possession. He was sentenced, 1 June 2015, to 2 years in federal prison and 10 years

probation and will register as a sex offender. Casey was trading in the rape and torture of children that included infants.

• 51 year old David Bourque, formerly the Police Captain of Granby, Connecticut, was sentenced to ten years for child porn possession and distribution. He had more than 328,528 images and 4,000 videos on his police department computer including “sadistic and violent acts” against infants and toddlers. His “collection” was organized into more than 300 sub-folders named “photos — babies — men” and “6–10yo boys pics.” In this excerpt, originally from criminal complaint, Bourque is D for defendant.

David Bourque’s Criminal Complaint

Prosecutors said the images were “extremely disturbing; some are especially horrific” including: (1) a boy between 1 and 3 years old being raped by an adult male penis in the child’s anus, (2) a boy between 3 and 6 years old with a “penis of what appears to be an adult male pressed against the child’s anus” and (3) a child, less than a year old, “performing oral sex on an adult male.” Bourque showed “callous disregard” for the children being abused telling people to “enjoy” themselves and “have fun.”

Samples of his on-line chats, include this excerpt:

David Bourque is D for defendant

Bourque was a decorated officer with more than 31 years in law enforcement.

• Sheriff’s Deputy, 29 year old Benjamin Farson with Indiana’s Marion County Sheriff Department, was arrested in 2012, on seven counts of felony possession and distribution of child porn including the sex abuse of toddlers. He was a deputy at the Arrestee Processing Center in Indianapolis. Farson is currently awaiting a jury trial, scheduled for 10 March 2015, on all seven felony counts and remains free on bail.

• North Carolina Police Officer Steven Webb, formerly with Kannapolis Police Department, and his wife Tracy Webb, were arrested for sexually abusing children, producing and distributing this abuse. Kannapolis Police Chief had received a tip from an anonymous source. Child sex abuse images and videos found on the Webb’s home computers included children as young as three years old. Webb and his wife accepted a plea deal and were sentenced; ten years for Steven Webb and three years for Tracy Webb.

• Nelson Begay, 32 year old Albuquerque, New Mexico Police Officer, plead guilty to federal child porn charges and was sentenced to seven and half years. He had been arrested by Homeland Security agents. The criminal complaint notes that Begay possessed videos of the sex abuse of children as young as three years old. He said he tried to “quit viewing the videos several times, but failed.” Begay said he started using child porn while he was with the military deployed to Korea in 2005.

• Police Sergeant, 53 year old Jonathan N. Gamson, with Tampa, Florida’s police force plead guilty to child porn possession and was sentenced to four years and nine months. He was caught in part of Homeland Security’s Operation Gondola. He possessed images of the sex abuse of at least one “baby.” Other images included “a little girl was bound and blindfolded and then photographed while someone sexually assaulted her.” Investigators described another image as “sadistic” and “horrific” involving a little girl who was “hung by her wrists from the ceiling.” Investigators found child sex abuse images stored on Gamson’s home computer dating back to 2006. Gamson had worked in law enforcement for 25 years.

• Harris County, Texas Sheriff Deputy, 42 year old David Wayne Land, a former detention officer, was convicted of promotion and possession of child porn and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Land had more than 9,500 images and 62 videos of child sex abuse of children between the ages of 3 to 8 years old.

• Lieutenant Richard Lewis, with the Slaton, Texas Police, was charged with child porn possession and sentenced to nearly six years. Homeland Security investigated Lewis and seized his home and work computers. Lewis admitted downloading child sex abuse including one image that “showed a man with a young girl in a diaper.”

•Deputy Nick Moen, with Grand Isle County Sheriff’s Department in Vermont, was charged, 9 January 2014, with three felony counts of promote sexual recording/visual, i.e. child pornography. On 6 January 2015, in a plea agreement, he plead guilty to all three counts.

Judge Alison Arms sentenced Moen, 12 May 2015, to 3–12 years jail all of which were suspended except for 30 days. He will remain on probation for the 3–12 years and must register as a sex offender. Moen’s files included a nine year old girl giving her father “a Super Bj” and toddler sex abuse.

Nick Moen’s Criminal Complaint

Moen used Lemon Wire and the Gnutella peer-to-peer network to download and distribute child sex abuse and told investigators he masturbated to the torture of the children. He was fired from the Sheriff’s department in September 2013. The Sheriff said Moen’s termination was not based on misconduct saying Moen’s schedule “did not fit with the department’s needs.”

• Roger Byg, a retired 73 year old former Maricopa County Sheriff’s employee, who also served on the board, was charged with ten felony counts of child porn possession after investigators found “a large amount of images.” Investigators described the child sex abuse as “extremely disturbing” and included children as young as three years old. All charges against Byg were dropped in May 2014 due to Byg’s death.

• Maine State Police Chief, 73 year old Andrew Demers, now retired, was charged with child sex abuse, over many months, of his four year old granddaughter. He was sentenced, in a plea deal, to five years, one of which was suspended. Demers served 26 years with the Maine State Police and was chief from 1987 to 1993. In 2003, Demers, the most decorated officer in state police history, was named a “Legendary Trooper.” Maine State Police told Michael Doyle, of Falmouth Today, investigators did not believe probable caused had been met to ask for and/or obtain a search warrant to determine if Demers produced child porn of his abuse of his granddaughter and/or distributed/downloaded child sex abuse of other children.

• Kevin R. Duke, a 51 year old Reserve Deputy with East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff in Louisiana, was arrested, in 2009, on child porn charges including the rape of one year children. He was sentenced to five years probation.

Kevin Duke’s Offense Report detailing some of the videos he had downloaded.

Duke was pretending to be a 13 year old girl and distributing nude photos of a real 13 year old girl. Duke was caught when another man came under police investigation for masturbating on-line to the fake 13 year old girl profile, who was in reality, Duke.

Chiefs, Captains, Sheriffs and Colonels

• Brian Fanelli, 54 year old now former Police Chief of Mount Pleasant, New York, was arrested in January 2014 on child porn charges. He was suspended with pay and retired 10 April 2014. Mount Pleasant Police Department could not confirm or deny if Fanelli is receiving retirement benefits. Currently, Fanelli remains under house arrest awaiting sentencing. No sentencing date has been set. Fanelli had images and videos of the sex abuse of children as young as seven years old. He had down-loaded a video of a 10 and a 12 year old girl engaged in sex acts with each other and another video called “10 y touch pussy webcam.”

Brian Fanelli’s Criminal Complaint

The Homeland Special Agent leading the investigation said “The general public impression of people who commit these crimes is [that of] an unemployed pervert in his mother’s basement… That’s not our experience. We’re finding that the people who commit these crimes are educated professionals, people in many different fields, and unfortunately this is not the first law enforcement officer that we’ve arrested for this crime.”

• Chief William Jacobs, 50 year old Minneapolis Park Police and a lawyer, plead guilty to criminal sexual conduct and child porn possession. He was sentenced to 18 years in jail. Police arrested Jacobs in 2010 when a teenage boy reported Jacobs had sexually abused him over a three year period. Investigators discovered some 150,000 child sex abuse images at the Jacobs’ home. Seventeen other men came forward claiming sexual abuse by Jacobs between 1962 and 1980 when he was a police officer and a camp counselor. There may be up to 20 to 30 other victims. Jacobs admitted he had been molesting boys since he was 19 years old.

• Daniel Sayer, a 59 year old Captain with New York’s auxiliary police was arrested in 2012 on child porn charges. Sayer plead guilty, in a plea deal, to two felony counts and was given two, one year concurrent sentences, i.e., only a one year jail term. Sayer had a “massive” collection of images of the sex abuse of boys under 16 years old. His landlord contacted authorities after seeing child porn in Sayer’s moving boxes. Sayer owned and operated a youth sports program, from 1972–1998, called Dan’s Cougars Children’s Sports Club. He received an award from President Obama for his service. He is now a registered sex offender.

• LeLand Benson, 67 year old Myrtle Creek, Oregon Police Chief, was arrested on child porn charges and arraigned on ten counts in 2013. His final sentencing has been continued several times with the next hearing set for 15 December 2014. Benson joined law enforcement in 1970 with California’s Coos Bay Police Department, where he worked for 25 years before retiring. He then re-joined law enforcement in Oregon.

• Now former Police Chief, 44 year old Robert Geist, of Brecknock Township, Pennsylvania was arrested in December of 2013 on child porn charges. Geist was the “number one possessor and distributor of child porn” in Pennsylvania. He was caught sending child sex abuse images and videos to an undercover investigator including a file called “6Yo babyj – Bedtime rape.” When investigators arrived at his father’s home, where Geist was living, Geist was already destroying his hard drive; however, investigators were able to recover files. In January 2014 Geist waived his right to a hearing on the child porn charges in exchange for the prosecution dropping other charges. On 8 April 2014 he plead guilty to three child porn charges and remained free on bail until his sentencing, on 25 September 2014, when he received five years probation and 100 hours of community service.

• Fifty-five year old Edward T. Farmer, of Rutherford County Tennessee Sheriff’s Department, was arrested in February 2014 and indicted on eight child sexual abuse counts and one evidence tampering count. Farmer and his 28 year old girlfriend, Catrina McQuiston, raped two children over many months. Farmer was fired by Rutherford County Sheriff Department in 2005 for misuse of county property. At the time child porn was suspected on his work computer but no charges were filed. Farmer is a retired Army Colonel with 32 years of military service and a father of three children. He is currently free on bail pending trial. The trial, originally set for October 2014, has been continued. No new trial date has been set at this time. Farmer remains an actively practicing lawyer. The Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility has not yet taken any public disciplinary action in this case.

• Police Chief, 39 year old Michael Meissner of Little River Academy Texas, was arrested on seven felony counts of child porn possession, aggravated promotion of prostitution, sexual performance by a child and engaging in organized criminal activity. Meissner was posing as a woman and luring boys to “sex parties” through fake social media accounts. He also solicited nude photos from boys. Many of his victims had arrest records and it appears he may have used police databases to target the children. Meissner had been under investigation in 2006 related to allegations of the sex abuse of a 15 year old boy. Charges in that case were dropped even though Meissner had been found altering his hard drive. In 2009 investigators recovered some 5,000 text messages and emails and photos that documented child sex abuse by Meissner. He was originally held on $1.5 million dollar bail at the Dallas County Jail but after a week he was released and all charges were dropped. Within months the lead investigating agency’s Police Chief resigned and the lead investigative officer, John Hoskins, was on “medical leave.” Meissner then sued Officer Hoskins. According to a local lawyer’s blog, “neither the Dallas County District Attorney nor the Tarrant County District Attorney are going to prosecute this guy.” Meissner had worked in 18 police departments in the last 20 years and had been a Police Chief in four small cities. He has been arrested at least four times and all charges have always been dropped.

Public Information Officers

• Officer William “Bud” Walker, Fairfax, Virginia (VA) County Police Department Spokesman and former school resource officer at South County High School in Lorton VA, was arrested, 15 April 2015, and charged with two counts of child pornography possession.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip from Tumblr that child pornography being uploaded on its servers. These were traced to Walker’s home. Fairfax PD placed Walker administrative leave with pay and he, later, resigned his position. Walker has been out free on $15,000 bond pending his next court date of 17 June 2015. He was a Fairfax County Officer for fifteen years.

Deputies, Lieutenants and Sergeants

•Sgt. Bradley Wax, a 54 year old officer with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), was arrested, 23 April 2014, on 38 counts of child pornography possession.

Although NOPD placed Wax on emergency suspension without pay when he was first arrested, a year later investigative journalists found Wax still on the force at NOPD headquarters. As of 26 Mary 2015 Wax remained free on bail pending sentencing and an active officer with NOPD.

•Brian McAlexander, a 54 year old Lieutenant with the Bedford, Virginia Police Department, resigned his position, 27 April 2015, after he came under investigation by the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for suspected child porn use.

As of 9 June 2015 the investigation was still on-going and no charges had been brought. McAlexander had been on the Bedford Police Department’s force for 25 years.

•Alan C. Vigiard, a 46 year old Sergeant with the Adams Police Department in Massachusetts, who served as a child exploitation officer, plead guilty to 10 counts of child porn and was sentenced to two years in jail. Vigiard was caught viewing child porn at work on a police computer. He was spending, on average, one to six hours per shift viewing pornography, including child pornography, and was caught masturbating in the evidence room.

•Todd Tripp, a 24 year old now former Deputy with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, was arrested, for a second time, on 8 October 2013, on 304 counts of child porn. On 26 March 2015 Tripp was arrested for the fourth time and charged with new child porn possession charges involving a juvenile and computer-aided solicitation of a minor.

Tripp’s initial arrest was 10 September 2013. Tripp was then arrested again on 8 October and 7 November 2013 for total charges of 306 counts of possession of child pornography, computer-aided solicitation of a minor, carnal knowledge of a juvenile and indecent behavior with a juvenile.

Tripp was fired from the Sheriff’s office when he was first arrested on child porn and indecent behavior with a child charges. Tripp was out on $125,000 bail until his March arrest. On 30 March 2015 his bond was revoked and he was being held without bond.

• Deputy Director of Kansas’ Bureau of Investigation and former assistant attorney general, 58 year old Kyle G. Smith, was arrested in February 2014 on one count of child sexual exploitation and two counts of interfering with law enforcement. Smith was caught when he emailed a photo of a “teenager crouched in a position exposing her breasts and genitalia” to his secretary who alerted authorities. He plead guilty to one charge of child sexual exploitation and, as part of a plea, the other two charges were dropped. On 28 May 2014 Smith was sentenced by Judge Kingfisher who gave Smith a jail sentence of 2.6 years and then ruled that the “court suspends execution of sentence of imprisonment and places defendant on 36 months supervised probation.” The Kansas Supreme Court disbarred Smith in October 2014.

• Raymond Gonzales, a 50 year old Deputy Sheriff in Pueblo County Colorado, was arrested for sexual exploitation of a child and child porn possession. He was caught when he left, by mistake, a thumb drive with 7,000 images of child sex abuse on his work computer. In 2013 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

• Sgt. Dennis Craig Bell, a 55 year old veteran with the US Capitol Police, was arrested for child porn possession and distribution. Bell had downloaded “hundreds of images” of child sex abuse, including of children under 12 years old, on his work and home computers. He had been an officer with the US Capitol Police for 27 years. Bell was sentenced to five years in jail.

• Former Florida Vero Beach Police Officer and Indian River County Sheriff’s Deputy, 55 year old James H. Scharfschwerdt, was found guilty of sexual battery of boys between the ages of 12 and 16. He was given a life sentence. Five men testified Scharfschwerdt molested them when they were boys in the 1980s when he was a police officer. In 1988 accusations surfaced that Scharfschwerdt was molesting boys. He was suspended from the Police Department. A jury found him not guilty. Scharschwerdt moved to St. Augustine and was arrested in 2010 for new child sex abuse charges.

• Polk County Florida Detention Deputy, 45 year old Robin Pagoria, was arrested, in 2011, and charged with multiple counts of possession, production and promotion of child porn. In 2013 she was sentenced to 20 years in jail in a plea deal. Pagoria had been producing child porn of girls, as young as ten years old, under her supervision whom she handcuffed naked to a homemade torture table and whipped with a leather “sex whip,” a cane and a “sex paddle.” The children sustained hemorrhaging and lacerations and were subject to abuse multiple times over months. She shared the videos, which she focused on the children’s genitals, with her on-line boyfriend and also on a website called SpankFinders. In the videos the children are screaming and begging her to stop. Pagoria said she got sexual gratification from the abuse. She is a former Marine and spent 26 years in the Marine Corps before joining the Sheriff’s office.

• Christopher Thomas Davis, a 32 year old Sheriff’s Deputy with Georgia’s White County Sheriff Department, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for child porn production involving the sex abuse of a 6 year old girl. Investigators also found “several hundred additional images” of child sex abuse on his home computer and external hard drives.

• A Deputy Sheriff with the jail division, 68 year old Harry Parris, in Fayette County Georgia, was sentenced to five years in jail for accessing child porn on his work computer. The Sheriff’s Information Technology staff discovered Parris’ illegal activity.

• Former Deputy Marshall, 31 year old Derek D. Walton, was arrested and plead guilty to two child porn counts. He was sentenced, in June 2014, to 16 years in federal prison. He had been sexually abusing children for child porn production and distributing child porn from his work computer in the Franklin County Security Center. Investigators found images of Walton sexually abusing children on his home electronics. Walton had worked for more than a decade in law enforcement in Indiana.

From Derek Walton’s Criminal Complaint. Derek Walton is Email Account 2

From Derek Walton’s Criminal Complaint. Derek Walton is Email Account 2.

• David Oldham, a 42 year old Sheriff’s Deputy in LaPorte County Indiana, was arrested and charged with eight counts of child porn possession, child molestation and tampering with evidence in 2011. He was sentenced to 2.3 years in federal prison in May 2013. LaPorte County Sheriff Mike Mollenhauer contacted Indiana State Police after Deputy Oldham’s wife contact the Sheriff expressing concern about Oldham’s relationship with a 12-year-old neighborhood boy. The boy was spending nights with Oldham, sleeping in the same bed, after riding in the patrol car when Oldham worked the midnight shift. Despite Oldham’s attempts to destroy his hard drive investigators were able to recover some 70 child sex abuse images and seven videos from Oldham’s home computer.

• Sheriff’s Deputy in Washoe County Nevada, 36 year old Paul Kistner, was arrested and charged with five counts of child porn possession. He plead guilty and received up to three years probation. Kistner’s wife installed spyware on their home computer and alerted the Sheriff’s office when child porn was discovered. Kistner had been a Detention Officer for 12 years at the Washoe County Jail.

• Robert Farrill, 51 year old reserve Sheriff’s Deputy in Okmulgee County Oklahoma, was arrested and charged, in September 2013, with four felony counts of child porn distribution, one felony count child porn possession and two counts of child sex abuse. He was held without bail. In November 2013 more charges of child sex abuse were added by Judge Cindy Pickering regarding a boy Farrill molested from 1999–2013. On 22 May 2014 Farrill was sentenced on two counts to two life jail terms, on ten counts to twenty year jail terms per count and for the last count five years jail time. Farrill was caught sending child sex abuse images to an undercover agent on the file sharing site Gnutella. Farrill had also worked in North Texas as school security guard and karate teacher. Investigators have identified six of the child victims that were seen in images on Farrill’s computers. He was a pro-pedophile activist and frequented on-line forums such as Boylover.net and Little Boy Lover Forum.

• Sheriff’s Deputy in Clark County Ohio, 30 year old Dustin Hensley, was sentenced to 25 years in jail for producing, distributing, and possessing child porn.

Dustin Hensley’s Criminal Complaint

Hensley had been, for years, routinely sexually abusing boys, as young as 13 years old, including a boy, who was in his care and custody. He produced and distributed the sex abuse of the children on-line.

• South Dakota, Pennington County Sheriff’s Deputy, 26 year old William Wray was sentenced to 30 years in jail for possession, manufacture and distribution of child porn. An investigation into Wray was opened when a mother told the Sheriff that Wray had “inappropriate conduct” with her six year old son. Wray had showered with the boy, taken pictures of the boy’s penis and fondled the boy’s penis and anus. Wray told the boy to keep it a “secret.” The child told his mother. Investigators obtained a search warrant and discovered that Wray has as many as 17,000 child sex abuse images/videos. Wray, an Air Force veteran, was also an active volunteer with Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

• Kenneth John Freeman, a 44 year old former Sheriff’s Deputy with Benton County, Washington State, repeatedly raped his 10 year old daughter and distributed videos of the rapes on-line. This child rape video “became one of the most widely downloaded child pornography videos in recent years.” Freeman fled to China and was finally arrested in Hong Kong and extradited to America. When Freeman’s daughter, then a teenager, did an interview on “America’s Most Wanted,” the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was able to identify a well-known child rape series to that of Freeman’s daughter. Freeman was on the US Marshals 15 most wanted fugitives list. Freeman plead guilty to multiple counts of child rape and the manufacture, possession and distribution of child porn and was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison. Investigators said “Kenneth Freeman distinguishes himself as one of the most heinous and despicable pedophiles ICE has ever encountered.”

• Forty-one year old Lt. Steven Lowe, with the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department, was arrested on child sex abuse charges. Lowe was still under investigation when he was found dead in an apparent suicide. He had been posting as a teenage girl online to get teenage boys to send him nude pictures.

• Philip H. Wentzel, a 41 year old Sergeant with Milwaukee County Sheriff’s office in Wisconsin was indicted on nine counts of child sex abuse charges and sentenced to forty years in federal prison. Wentzel had been producing child porn for at least two years. He drugged and molested girls, often in his camper that he kept at a local campground, and produced child porn which he advertised on-line: “Girls I have to share range from 6–14. I work only now on ‘you show me yours, I’ll show you mine’ basis.” Investigators identified at least seven victims from the images of children “sleeping and/or drugged” and a “prepubescent girl sleeping on a sofa, a male’s hand has pulled down the girl’s pajamas and underwear.” One of the girls identified had “became quiet in the past year and missed a lot of school” and “had finger bruises on her arm.” Sgt. Wentzel had been, for years, “the public face” of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department as their public information officer.

• Sgt. Michael Malloy, a 34 year old officer with the US Capitol Police at the time of his 2006 arrest, was sentenced to 15 years for the sexual exploitation of a minor for the purpose of creating child porn. His friend, Aaron Burroughs, a Bowie High School assistant football coach, had trafficked the teenage girl for Sgt. Malloy and other men. Burroughs was also charged with child sex abuse and trafficking. Takoma Park police found Burroughs parked car with the girl performing oral sex. The teenager said she had worked as a prostitute for Burroughs and that Malloy and Burroughs recorded sex with her in Malloy’s home.

• Corporal Robert V. Melton, a 59 year old Corrections Deputy for Bradford County Florida, was arrested, in January 2014, and charged with 11 counts of child porn possession and one charge of promoting sexual performance by a child. He was sentenced, on 14 October 2014, to 60years in jail. The Florida Department of Children and Families received a tip that Melton was sexually abusing a child under the age of 12. Investigators obtained a search warrant for Melton’s home and property and discovered child porn.

• Matt Blair, a Chief Deputy in McMinn Country Tennessee, received child sex abuse images while he was in training at the FBI Academy from his close friend Terry Lynne Hayes, who was drugging 14, 15 and 16 year old girls, raping them and filming the abuse for child porn production. Hayes plead guilty, February 2014, to transporting child porn and giving cocaine to a minor. Eight additional charges of providing cocaine, hydrocodone, Xanax and other drugs to minors were dropped in a plea deal. Hayes’ June 2014 trial was continued. His sentencing hearing is currently scheduled for 5 December 2014 in Chattanooga. Deputy Blair was not charged, even though he failed to report the child porn sent to him by his close friend, and no disciplinary actions were taken against Blair by the Sheriff’s office. Deputy Blair is also the brother-in-law of his boss, Sheriff Joe Guy. The crime scene photos of child sex abuse that Blair possessed were discovered by investigations when they conducted a search of Hayes’ electronics. The investigation into Hayes was triggered when one of his victims, a 14 year old girl was found, disoriented and bleeding. She required hospitalization and told investigators she had been raped. An 18 year old female accomplice of Hayes admitted to investigators that she located young girls for Hayes and set up meetings. Deputy Blair had the keys to Hayes’ $500,000 waterfront home which has been used for Sheriff Command Staff meetings.

• Sheriff’s Deputy, 21 year old Matthew A. Lyons, Isle of Wight County, Virginia, was indicted on reproducing and/or selling child porn and sentenced to 2.1 years in jail. Colleagues reported him after he had sent an email, from a Yahoo account in his name, on a common police computer, requesting child sex abuse images.

• Sergeant Michael Stavris, 30 years old of Bunnell Police Department in Florida, was arrested, March 2014, for child porn charges after he was discovered posing as a 16-year-old girl on a fake Facebook account and asking teenage boys to send graphic sexual images to him. He had asked one boy for a picture of the boy’s genitals. Stavris was requesting images/videos of teenage boys masturbating and asked boys to meet him behind a local school for oral sex. He was relieved of duty without pay. He posted the $125,000 bond and remains free on bail. A hearing is set for 7 January 2015.

Officers

•Darrell Best, a 45 year old Washington Metro Police Department (MDP) Officer and a local pastor, was arrested, 16 March 2015, and charged with sexually assaulting two teenage girls, 16 and 17 years old, who attended God-A Second Chance Ministry Church, where Best was a pastor.

Best was also charged with one count child pornography production. Best’s fiancée found pictures of child sex abuse and law enforcement was alerted. He had assaulted one of the girls in DC police headquarters’ office. The other girl was assaulted at church. He was armed and wearing his badge at the time. Metro PD suspended Best without pay during the investigation. His last court appearance was 1 June 2015 and he remains held without bond pending sentencing. Best had been an MPD Officer for 25 years.

•Patrick Andrew Frey, a 24 year old Conroe ISD Police Officer for the Oak

Ridge and Woodland College Park schools, was arrested, 28 May 2015, and charged with child porn possession. He had pictures of a 17 year old boy on his cell phone and said he and another adult male had “engaged” in sexual activity with the 17 year old boy. It is not clear if the child was a student at the school where Frey was a police officer. He resigned his position in January 2015 after being questioned by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. Frey was released on $23,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for 11 June 2015.

•Donald Glunt, a 57 year old Officer with Lynden Police Department, Washington State, was arrested, 25 April 2014, on charges of dealing and possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and viewing of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. On 2 May 2014 he plead not guilty but later changed his plea to guilty. He has been free on $10,000 bail pending sentencing. As of June 2015 no sentencing date has set.

Glunt had been trading nude images with a 16 year old girl in Texas on his police cell phone. Lynden Police conducted an internal investigation when they noticed Glunt was sending “an inordinate number of text messages.” Glunt also had pictures of local girls in his work locker. Outside his police duties, Glunt had volunteered as a co-training coordinator for a church-based anti-child sex trafficking nonprofit Hope4Justice and had been a volunteer firefighter for more than 20 years. He resigned from Lynden Police just prior to his arrest. Glunt had been on the force for 34 years.

•Officer Noe Yanez, 40 years old of Long Beach California, was sentenced to eleven years for sex crimes against girls. Long Beach Police Department fired Yanez after he plead guilty to felony child sex abuse from 2008 to 2012, including forcible rape, meeting a minor for lewd purposes, using a minor for sex acts, possession of child pornography and two counts of false imprisonment by fraud of deceit.

•Joseph P. Padgett, a 48 year old former San Jose, California Police Officer, was arrested and charged, 7 January 2011, with felony child porn possession. His bail was set at $75,000 and he originally remained in jail; however, local press reported it was “unclear” why King County Superior Court Judge Theresa Doyle released Padgett, 27 February 2011, “on his own recognizance, despite arguments from King County prosecutors and concern from his former wife.” Padgett had “hundreds of images” of naked underage girls, adult men raping girls as young as four years old, bestiality, knives, guns and military weapons and “images of Padgett having sex with “many different women,” some of whom were handcuffed or attached to a large wooden crucifix.” In November 2013 Judge Jim Rogers dismissed all charges, without prejudice, claiming the search warrant was too vague. “It has been crystal clear in the State of Washington since 1992 that the term ‘child pornography’ is unconstitutionally vague and will not support a search warrant” said Judge Jim Rogers. King County prosecutor Dan Donohoe said he would file an appeal. Padgett had left the San Jose Police Department after he was charged with five misdemeanor invasion of privacy counts for filming himself having sex with various women.

• San Francisco Officer, 37 year old Richard Hastings, of the San Francisco Police Department, was arrested, in August of 2013, and charged with 10 felony counts of child molestation and sodomy of a 15 year old boy, child porn of an eight year old boy and other charges. San Francisco Police Department suspended him without pay. His hearing date is currently set for 5 December 2014.

• Joshua Carrier, a 31 year old Colorado Springs Police Officer, was charged with molesting 22 boys and 207 counts of child exploitation, child sexual assault and child porn possession. He was sentenced to 70 years to life in prison. He tried to masturbate the boys and had inserted his finger into his rectum of one boy claiming he was checking for appendicitis. Carrier volunteered at Horace Mann Middle School as a wrestling coach in 2009–2010 where he gained access to the boys and sexually abused them over this two year period.

•32 year old Jason Sutter, a Deputy with the La Plata Sheriff’s Office in Colorado, was arrested and charged with child porn possession. He had 89 images of the sex abuse of boys on his personal computer. He plead guilty to a misdemeanor, sexual contact without consent, and was sentenced in May 2014 to five years probation. He must register as a sex offender. His wife said “He hid behind his badge very well.”

•James Henry, a 37 year old Police Officer with Metro Police Department, Las Vegas, was arrested, 22 October 2014, and charged with ten counts of child porn possession.

In a deal he plead guilty, 10 December 2014, to one count of possessing a visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child. In exchange for the plea, Clark County District Attorney agreed not to refer the case for federal prosecution. He was sentenced, 13 April 2015, to four years probation which he will served under house arrest and he must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Henry had been on Metro Police force for 12 years. Metro PD placed him on paid administrative leave when they learned of the investigation. Google had notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after Henry uploaded child porn on Google Cloud. Henry admitted to investigators he had been trading in child sex abuse and said he found images of boys and girls “captivating and titillating.”

• Herbert Eugene Miller, a 45 year old Police Officer in Greeneville Tennessee, was sentenced to three years for child porn possession. He had downloaded child porn while on patrol in his police car. A fellow officer noticed the web searches and alerted a supervisor. Miller was using key words such as “fifth grade girls,” “naked middle school girls,” “prepubescent females,” “young puffy nipples” and “hot high school girls naked” and down-loaded “thousands” of images including prepubescent girls being vaginally raped by adult males.

• Andrew W. Nielsen, a 49 year old Officer with East Hartford, Connecticut Police Department for 24 years, was arrested for child porn possession in November 2012. He was sentenced to 2 years in jail in August 2014. Nielsen was caught by Project Spade, a US Postal Inspection Service and Toronto Police joint investigation, when his credit card appeared on the billing records of the company that produced child sex abuse. In just six months he ordered 49 DVDs of child sex abuse paying $1,173.55. The DVDs included 12,765 images and some 41 hours of videos.

Andrew Nielsen’s Sentencing Memorandum

• In December of 2013 Washington DC Police Officer, 32 year old Marc Washington, was charged with child porn production but, apparently, committed suicide before facing justice. While on duty he visited the home of a teenage girl who had previously been reported as missing. He ordered her to get naked and took pictures. The girl later told her mother who called 911. Washington who was arrested within hours by DC police. He images of other children on his camera and thousands of images of women who had been victims of domestic violence.

• Washington DC Officer, 47 year old Linwood Barnhill, was caught “pimping” teenage girls from his apartment when authorities searching for a missing 16 year girl found this girl in Barnhill’s apartment. He advertised the children on Backpages.com for $50-$80. A different 15 year old had been picked up by Barnhill at a bus-stop. Barnhill asked her to “escort” for him. “The defendant informed [the girl] that he plans bachelor parties and has ‘tons’ of girls. [The girl] stated the defendant told her that her young age was not a problem because he had other minors who worked for him.” Barnhill pleaded guilty to two counts of pandering a minor and one of count child porn possession and was sentenced, October 2014, to seven years in jail.

• Kingman, Kansas Police Officer, 41 year old Dustin D. Morris, was arrested for soliciting sexual exploitation of a child, possessing visual depiction of a child under 18 years of age and distributing visual depiction of a child under 18 years of age. He was charged with ten felony counts of child porn related charges was sentenced to 60 days in jail and 5.6 years probation.

• Paul Manganelli, a 48 year old Waltham, Massachusetts Police Officer, was sentenced to 5 years in prison, July 2014, on child porn charges. He had more than 850 images and 40 videos including bondage of minor girls. An Australian arrested for child porn had been trading child sex abuse images with Manganelli who shared images of a “naked prepubescent female, restrained by ropes around her legs and/or wrists.” In one email Manganelli said, “I absolutely love little girls ages 7 to 11. Such a great age… I am trying to organize everything and stay private at the same time. Don’t want to get caught.” Manganelli claimed he sexually molested a prepubescent girl and asked, on-line, on tips for grooming children for sex abuse.

• Jason Lee Villasana, a 36 year old Police Officer in Sabinal Texas, plead guilty to child porn distribution. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. Investigators recovered over 1,500 images and videos of child sex abuse that he had been storing inside a wall at his home. In addition to distribution he was also producing his own child porn.

Jason Lee Villasana’s Criminal Complaint

Villasana came under investigation when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alerted the Texas Attorney General of child porn downloads linked to Villasana’s IP address.

• Police Officer, 37 year old Jeremy Rose, of Tremonton Utah Police Department was arrested, in June 2013, and charged with 15 offenses including with nine counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, obstruction of justice, and stalking. He was sentenced, in November 2014, to 9 months in jail and 36 months probation. Rose had “thousands of photos of a teenage girl” on his home and police computer. He had convinced a 15 year old girl to produce child porn for him. He had also hidden a camera in her bedroom. Rose set up fake email accounts and links to a bogus online company where he told the girl he was selling the photos. Rose’s wife informed investigators after he confessed to her.

Retired

• Former Sgt. of the Wichita Kansas Police Officer, retired 51 year old Alex Robinson, was arrested, March 2014, for two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and three counts of aggravated indecent liberties of three children between the ages of 11–13 years old. His hearing is set for 30 December 2014. He also faces two counts of child sex abuse in Colorado. Robinson was first arrested when 24-year-old man came forward detailing the assaults that occurred when he was a child. Although the statute of limitation had expired, Captain Brent Allred said qualifiers could be met allowing charges to be filed. Robinson received an award from President George W. Bush for some 17,000 volunteer hours with the Boys and Girls Club.

• Retired Sheriff Deputy of Pima County Arizona, 63 year old Terry White, was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and child porn possession and he plead in exchange for a 42 month sentence.

• A retired Lieutenant, 56 year old Douglas Bruce L’Heureux, formerly with Martin County Sheriff in Florida, was arrested for 97 counts of child porn possession. He had thousands of images of child sex abuse of children ages 9 to 12. He had been collecting child sex abuse images and videos since at least 1992. He was sentenced to 25 years.

• Retired Police Captain, 51 year old Michael Grennier a 25-year veteran of South Plainfield, New Jersey, plead guilty to one count of child porn production in February 2013 and remained in custody until he was sentenced, in November 2014, to 20 years in jail. He paid a teenage girl to live-stream sex and masturbate him. He had also paid $500 each for two teenagers to have sex with him in a hotel room which he video-taped. He had been twice named Officer of the Year.

Prosecution and Sentencing?

This past October, in Alabama, Judge L. Scott Coogler sentenced Patricia Ayers to 1,590 years in prison for 53 child porn counts. Her husband Matthew Ayers was sentenced to 750 years in jail on 25 child porn counts.

This is what every child porn sentence should be; maximum penalty.

Patricia and Matthew Ayers were not law enforcement; just average citizens. Are law enforcement caught with child porn receiving lighter sentences than citizens with no legal responsibility to serve and protect our children?

In Pennsylvania, former Police Chief Robert Geist lives free despite being the “number one possessor and distributor of child porn” in the entire state. Geist was sharing files including “6Yo babyj — Bedtime rape” but Geist was not sentenced to even one day in jail.

New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle was on-line trying to obtain a three year old girl to use as a sex slave. He discussed kidnapping women and girls for rape and murder. Gilberto Valle also walks free; sentenced only to time served twenty-one months and one year supervised release. Valle is now pursuing visitation rights of his 3 year old daughter.

When America’s citizens report child porn and/or child sex abuse to law enforcement, action should to be taken to protect the child and prosecute the perpetrator.

What happens when the police officer is the perpetrator?

Too many high-level law enforcement officers appear to be engaged in America’s organized criminal child porn industry. Too many judges appear to be protecting law enforcement caught for child porn related crimes with light sentences or no jail time at all.

This must change. Now.

Judge L. Scott Coogler is a hero for his sentencing of Patricia and Matthew Ayers. Why did Gilberto Valle or Robert Geist not receive similar sentences?

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Dr. Lori Handrahan’s forthcoming book Child Porn Nation: America’s Hidden National Security Risk details America’s child sex abuse epidemic. Her Ph.D. is from The London School of Economics. She can be reached on Twitter @LoriHandrahan2