U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman Michael Pollard Jr.’s “terrible secret” of having a child pornography collection has cost him his Navy career, family’s tradition and possibly future relationships.
“I tried to quit on my own … but I couldn’t go to people in the academy for help, because I was afraid they would prosecute me,” said Pollard, 23, during his court-martial Tuesday at the Washington Navy Yard, where he pleaded guilty to possessing more than 1,000 images of child pornography.
As he stood before a Navy captain acting as judge, Pollard fought back tears and apologized to his parents — his father, a retired Navy master chief — and the academy where he hoped to become a Navy jet pilot.
“He told me, ‘How could a woman love me, or have children with me?’” said Pollard Jr.’s mother, Marjorie.
Pollard’s sentence
Investigating officer Capt. Bruce Mackenzie, serving as the lone judge, handed down a six-year prison sentence, but because of a pre-trial agreement with the prosecution, Pollard will only serve five years in a Navy jail in Norfolk, Va.
As a standard rule, his case will automatically be appealed.
The convening authority in the case, Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, can reduce the punishment.
However, the prosecutors, acting on behalf of Fowler, offered Pollard, of Apopka, Fla., a three-year maximum jail sentence if he opted out of an Article 32 hearing, where the evidence against Pollard would be heard to determine if a court-martial would occur, said Pollard’s attorney Larry Burch.
But Pollard moved forward with the hearing, and the sentence was increased to five years, Burch said.
“The sentencing is more for a predator, not a voyeur,” he said.
Pollard also will have to pay back the academy roughly $100,000 for three years of education at the Annapolis academy, which is funded by taxpayers.
He also will have to register as a sex offender wherever he lives, and is now considered a federal felon.
But the biggest punishment is being ostracized at the academy, among his friends and in the public through media accounts of his court-martial, Pollard said.
Origins of an obsession
Pollard said his obsession began when he was 12, and developed into a compulsive craving that led him 10 years later to stay up until 4 a.m., downloading images of minors — some as young as 3 years old — behind a sheet hung over his bunk as a makeshift curtain.
“They were the sort of images that were demeaning and of ruinous behavior,” said prosecuting attorney Lt. Justin Henderson.
The images he downloaded, starting in 2003 while at the Naval Academy’s prep school in Rhode Island, were mostly of boys engaged in all forms of sex.
He used a file-sharing program, which investigators said also opened the images to other users of the program.
Pollard’s academy roommate discovered a pornographic file called “Boy Party” on Pollard’s computer Feb. 22, 2007, sparking the investigation.
Pollard also was charged with lying to Naval investigators about possessing the images during an interview in May.
Sex disorder
Pollard suffers from a paraphelia disorder, where he had an uncontrollable obsession with watching homosexual sex between minors, said Fred Berlin, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an expert on sexual disorders.
Berlin said no evidence existed that Pollard ever solicited or engaged in sexual activity with minors, or that he would ever do so.
“He was a decent young man who led a good life, but was afflicted with this disorder,” Berlin told the court.
Henderson argued during his closing statement that Pollard’s viewing of the images contributed to the act, but Berlin and Burch said the images would have existed even if Pollard did not view them, and Burch said Pollard shouldn’t have been aligned with those who made the images.
Family response
When Pollard’s mother Marjorie took the stand, she told the court she too suffered from an addiction — alcoholism. She didn’t seek help until she was arrested for driving under the influence.
“He was a very capable young man … and then when I found out, I was devastated,” she said, sobbing during her testimony.
As Marjorie Pollard gave her testimony, Michael Pollard Jr. put his head in his hands, wiping away tears.
Pollard Jr. said he would have been the eighth generation of his family to serve in the Navy.
Pollard’s father was away from home, serving on aircraft carriers and traveling across the country for recruiting efforts, officials said.
Pollard Sr. said he too suffered from a pornography addiction between 2004 and 2006 — the same time his son was downloading pornographic images.
“It’s every man’s battle,” Pollard Sr. said. “… My son is not a criminal.”
Pollard Jr. said the only upside to the whole issue is he has admitted to his addiction and is receiving treatment — his attorneys argued that any sentence of more than one year would hurt that treatment.
And as for his future, Pollard Jr. said aviation is no longer an option for him, and he will choose a new career path — computers.
