NOTE: Anne Arundel County Police have issued a correction, the suspect is an officer with the police department, not a Sergeant. This article has been updated to reflect the change.
Less than a week after an Anne Arundel County Police Sergeant was arrested on domestic violence charges, a second officer has been arrested and charged with child abuse.
On March 23, 2020, the Anne Arundel County Child Abuse Unit initiated an investigation of possible sexual child solicitation as information was received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The information received was that on February 26, 2020, a FBI Task Force Officer was working in an undercover capacity inside a specific pornographic website when a message was received from an unknown user who solicited a sexual encounter with a child.
Through further investigation, the unknown user was identified as a thirty three year old male from the 400 block of Brooks Court in Glen Burnie Maryland. The suspect was further identified as being a 6-year veteran of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. On March 23, 2020, a search warrant for the suspect and his residence was obtained and executed that evening.
During the search warrant, numerous digital devices along with other corroborating evidence was secured as evidence. The suspect was interviewed at the time of the search warrant and admitted his involvement in the conversation regarding the eight year old child.
It was at that time he was suspended from law enforcement duties as the investigation continued.
All digital devices seized were submitted to be forensically analyzed by the Anne Arundel County Digital Forensics Laboratory. After receiving the results from the forensic extraction of the digital devices seized during the search warrant, detectives recovered evidence as well as apparent child pornography.
On Friday, April 3, 2020, working in conjunction with the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office, Child Abuse detectives obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect charging him with the sexual solicitation of a minor and ten counts of possession of child pornography. Within hours the suspect was placed under arrest without incident near his residence and is currently suspended without pay.
Anne Arundel County Police Chief Timothy J. Altomare said, “True police, those with protective hearts, care about two groups of people more than any other. Those groups are our children and our elderly. Both groups, by virtue of their innocence or the effects of aging are the most vulnerable to predators. If someone wearing a badge betrays our oath of protection, we will do everything within our power to bring them to justice and make sure they never wear our uniform again. I am heart sick, physically ill, disgusted and enraged at the actions alleged in this case. I am also very proud of both our Federal partners and our investigators who relentlessly investigated this case from the moment they learned about it. We WILL do the right thing to hold predators in a uniform accountable every time. No one needs to force us to do so.”
As the investigation continues, the Anne Arundel County Police is urging any other victims or anyone with information regarding the above crimes to contact the Anne Arundel County Child Abuse Unit at 410-222-4733. One can also remain anonymous by calling the Anne Arundel County Tip Line 410-222-4700 or Metro Crime Stoppers.
