Talbot County Man Admits to Sexually Exploiting Two Children To Produce Child Pornography
Baltimore, Maryland - Paul Henry Brown, age 70, of Easton, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to sexually exploiting a minor to produce child pornography.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Talbot County Sheriff Dallas Pope; and Talbot County State’s Attorney Scott G. Patterson.
According to the plea agreement, two girls under the age of 10 stated that they had been repeatedly, sexually abused by Brown over the course of several months, to include being forced to perform oral sex on Brown. Talbot County deputies contacted Brown on July 30, 2010, who denied the allegations. On August 11, 2010, Talbot County deputies executed a search warrant at Brown’s residence and seized a digital camera and flash memory card. Further investigation revealed that the camera was used to take pictures of the two girls nude, and engaging in sexually explicit conduct. In one image, the two girls are sitting on Brown’s lap, all of them naked. Two CD-Rs were also seized which contained over 600 images and many videos of child pornography, including portrayals of sadistic conduct. Most of the images involved prepubescent girls.
As part of his plea agreement, Brown must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
Brown faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 in prison followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. has scheduled sentencing for April 25, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. Details about Maryland’s program are available at www.justice.gov/usao/md/Safe-Childhood/index.html.
This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE or its online tip form at http://www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the ICE-HSI, Talbot County Sheriff’s Office and Talbot County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson T. Mihok, who is prosecuting the case.
