A Fox News producer, Navy lieutenant commander, NPR editor and Capitol Police officer are among those who have who have faced child pornography charges in the Washington region in recent years.
Mark Motivans, a statistician with the Bureau of Justice Statistics, says child pornography offenders tend to be older, white men. But their professions, economic status and education levels run the gamut, said Dr. Fred Berlin, director of the Sexual Behavior Consultation Unit at Johns Hopkins University.
“It’s one of the sad realities,” he said. And in many high-profile cases locally, the suspect is someone in a position of authority or trust, such as a teacher, military member or law enforcement officer.
Most child sex offenders “are extremely socially capable,” said Heather Steele, president and chief executive of the Innocent Justice Foundation, an advocacy organization. “They have to learn how to manipulate children and adults.”
A few cases that have made news in the region:
Dennis Bell: The former Capitol Police officer admitted last year that he used online file-sharing services to distribute child porn.
Aaron Bruns: The Fox News Channel producer is serving a 10-year prison sentence after authorities found a laptop filled with hundreds of explicit images at his Dupont Circle apartment.
David Malakoff: The NPR science editor admitted to downloading videos of young girls being raped on his work laptop.
Scottie Lee Martinez: The Navy Reserve intelligence officer was sentenced in January to 80 years in prison for coercing two girls into sexual conduct so he could make child pornography.
