Anne Arundel County Man Admits Sexual Abuse of Children After He is Caught Downloading Child Pornography at Work

Defendant Personally Took Sexually Explicit Photos of Three Minor Victims

BALTIMORE, MD—Justin M. Bowman, age 26, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to producing child pornography, in connection with images he produced of three minor victims.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Colonel Marcus L. Brown, superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Anne Arundel County Police Chief James Teare, Sr.

According to the plea agreement and statements in court, on June 21 and 22, 2011, Bowman used the computer at the gas station convenience store where he worked to view and download child pornography to the computer’s hard drive and to a thumb drive. After a store employee discovered Bowman’s activities on the computer, the Anne Arundel County Police began an investigation. On July 14, 2011, law enforcement executed search warrants and seized the computer from the store where Bowman worked, as well as Bowman’s home computer, netbook computer, and thumb drive from his residence.

All of the items seized contained images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The images found included those produced by Bowman at his home between September 8, 2010, and July 12, 2011 of three minor victims. Bowman admitted that he took sexually explicit photos of the victims—an 11-year-old boy and two toddlers, a boy and a girl. In addition to the images of child pornography that Bowman produced, there were more than 100 images of child pornography located on the seized items.

As part of his plea agreement, Bowman must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

Bowman faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 in prison followed by up to lifetime of supervised release for production of child pornography. As part of the plea agreement, Bowman and the government have agreed that if the court accepts the plea agreement, Bowman will be sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release. U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar has scheduled sentencing for May 29, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, Maryland State Police and Anne Arundel County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow, who is prosecuting the case.