Halethorpe Man Sentenced To 9 Years In Prison For Distribution Of Child Pornography

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Kevin Francis Kelley, age 45, of Halethorpe, Maryland, today to nine years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for distribution of child pornography. Judge Hollander ordered that upon his release from prison, Kelley 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). Judge Hollander also ordered Kelley to pay restitution of $3,000.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

According to his plea agreement, Kelley was sharing child pornography using a file sharing program he downloaded from the internet. On October 13, 2013, an undercover Baltimore County Police detective downloaded a video file Kelley was sharing that depicted a prepubescent child engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Investigation revealed that Kelley was using a neighbor’s IP address, which he was able to access because he had helped them set up the password for their wireless router. Kelley admitted that he used his neighbor’s wireless connection to avoid detection by law enforcement. Kelley further admitted that he had been collecting child pornography for over 10 years and possessed “thousands” of child pornography images and videos that were saved on his computers and hard drives. Kelley advised law enforcement that he categorized his child pornography in various ways to include by sex act, age of child and name of child.

A preliminary forensic analysis of just one computer and hard drive of Kelley’s three computers and four external hard drives contained over 63,000 image files and 950 video files of child pornography, including prepubescent minors and images depicting sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, HSI Baltimore, the Baltimore County Police Department and the Baltimore 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 prosecuted the case.