Newport Navy Base Civilian Employee Pleads Guilty to Possessing Child Pornography

PROVIDENCE – A Naval Station Newport employee found to have stored hundreds of images of child pornography on a United States Navy owned computer drive has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence to a charge of possession of child pornography, in a Project Safe Childhood case brought by the United States Attorney's Office.

According to information, Donald E. Sly, Jr., 58, of Portsmouth, a civilian public works employee at Naval Station Newport, stored a total of 487 images of child pornography in his directory on a computer drive used by United States Navy personnel at naval bases throughout the East coast.

According to information presented to the court, upon discovery of the images of child pornography on the computer drive, Sly’s access to the drive was suspended. He later admitted to Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents that he knowingly possessed the images of child pornography discovered on the computer drive.

Appearing before U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., Sly pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, announced United States Attorney Aaron L. Weisman and Michael Wiest, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Field Office of Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on November 13, 2020.

Possession of child pornography is punishable by statutory penalties of up to 20 years in federal prison, five years to lifetime supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

This Project Safe Childhood case is being by prosecuted Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence P. Donnelly.

The Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative was launched to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children.  Through a network of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and advocacy organizations, Project Safe Childhood attempts to protect children by investigating and prosecuting offenders involved in child sexual exploitation.