A former Marine corporal now working as a civilian clerk at the U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters in Arlington is facing child pornography charges after the pornography files were flagged on the service’s network. A criminal complaint was filed against Kaleb C. Masters in federal court in Alexandria this week, accusing him of downloading hundreds of images of child pornography.
Masters was on active duty for four years, then served in the reserves for one year, ending in February 2006. He has worked at headquarters as a civilian since then.
Masters first came to the attention of authorities when a Marine Corps network operations sensor flagged suspicious files on his computer in July 2007, according to court documents.
A forensic analysis of his workstation uncovered Internet history files from various pornography Web sites and nearly 250 pages of searches, largely for terms such as “Underage Porn,” a court affidavit says.
In May 2009, Masters provided investigators with two other computers, which he admitted contained images of child pornography, according to the affidavit.
Court records say Masters has admitted to viewing child pornography at work and at his Alexandria apartment. He told authorities that he had looked up child pornography at work, but stopped before his computer was seized in 2007, though he continued to do so at home.
Forensic analyses of Masters’ computers conducted over the past three years yielded 111 images of child porn on his work hard drive and about 200 images on his personal computers, court records say.
Masters was arrested Tuesday and released Thursday on the conditions that he not have contact with minors, not leave the Washington area without permission, and notify current and future employers about the charges, among other requirements.
A phone number for Masters could not be located Thursday. Court documents show he indicated he would retain an attorney, but no lawyer for him was listed for him in online court records.
According to Marine Corps officials, Masters works as an administrative clerk in the Navy Annex.
He was a trumpet player in the Marine Corps band while on active duty from June 2000 to June 2004. He was stationed in California and Virginia during that time.
He also served in the reserves from February 2005 to February 2006 and worked as an administrative clerk.
