The girls gymnastics coach listened quietly as a federal prosecutor read off a list of incriminating items federal agents seized from the Edgewood home he shared with his mother.
More than 800 VHS tapes packed with child pornography; 600 illegal images on his computer hard drive; 21 little girls? panties in his bedroom.
Judge William Nickerson turned to the coach, Patrick Bogan, 41, and asked if the allegations were true.
“Yes, they are, Your Honor,” Bogan replied.
Bogan, who coached hundreds of children at Baltimore County Gymnastics in White Marsh, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to possession of child pornography. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he will likely serve 6 1/2 years in federal prison, register as a sex offender and be monitored by authorities for the rest of his life.
“He had a remarkably large collection of child pornography,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said. “He worked with children and had a lot of opportunity to have unsupervised contact with children. It was important that we act quickly in this case.”
FBI agents were led to Bogan, who is single, while conducting a nationwide probe into a sophisticated Internet message board that contained child pornography.
On March 2, agents searched Bogan?s home and recovered five cabinets containing videotapes of child pornography. They eventually recovered more than 800 videotapes, each one filled with child pornography and “child erotica”; a well-organized computer hard drive containing “countless” images of child pornography, including sexually explicit depictions of prepubescent girls; and 21 pairs of girls? underpants in Bogan?s bedroom, agents said.
Bogan collected these panties from a lost and found over a period of two years, prosecutors said.
He told investigators he is addicted to child pornography and knows it is wrong, charging documents state.
Rosenstein said agents have been meeting with girls coached by Bogan and asked them to come forward with any allegations of abuse.
“We have followed up on every allegation we received,” Rosenstein said. “Fortunately, we have not found any cases of actual abuse.”
Bogan will be sentenced on Aug. 9.
