Washington, D.C. – A 37-year-old Crofton, Maryland man, Aaron J. Burroughs, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for sexually exploiting a teenage girl whom he met while volunteering as an assistant football coach at Bowie High School in Maryland, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.

Burroughs received his sentence yesterday before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon. In August 2007, Burroughs pleaded guilty to one count of exploitation of children, one count of transportation of a minor to engage in prostitution, and one count of first degree child sexual abuse. He has been held without bond since his arrest on July 31, 2006, after the teenage victim, then age 15, was found engaged in prostitution while in a parked car in Takoma Park, Maryland.

According to the government’s evidence, the victim revealed that she was working for Burroughs, who had brought her from Maryland to the District of Columbia “track,” an area well known for prostitution, before she was picked up by a man who drove to Takoma Park for the agreed-upon sexual act.

Burroughs admitted that he had been sexually involved with the teenager since she was 14, when Burroughs asked her to be a trainer for the high school football team. Burroughs had then introduced her to prostitution, bringing her to the D.C. track and setting up “dates” for her with his friends, including Michael Malloy, then a U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant. On two occasions, he took the teenager to Malloy’s house in Charles County, Maryland, where the men videotaped themselves engaging in sex acts with the teenager. In September 2007, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland found Malloy guilty of exploitation of a child for producing the videotape, and he was sentenced in January 2008 to 15 years’ imprisonment.

In handing down the 16-year sentence against Burroughs, Judge Leon weighed the seriousness of his crimes against the cooperation he provided to the government pursuant to his plea agreement. Stating that deterrence was a paramount concern, the judge also emphasized the need for Burroughs’s sentence to be greater than that imposed on Malloy.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor commended the work of the D.C. Human Trafficking Task Force, and in particular, Detective Sergeant Morani Hines of the Metropolitan Police Department, Special Agent William McDermott of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Detective Thomas Stack of the Montgomery County Police Department. Lastly, he thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary McCord and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Herd, who prosecuted the case.