MARYLAND GYMNASTICS TEACHER WITH MASSIVE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY COLLECTION
SENTENCED TO 6 ½ YEARS FOR RECEIVING CHILD PORN
Defendant Was Caught as a Result of Nationwide Investigation of
Sophisticated Internet Message Board
BALTIMORE - U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson sentenced Patrick
Bogan, 41, of Edgewood, Maryland, today to 78 months in prison followed by
10 years of supervised release on child pornography charges in one of the
most significant child pornography cases ever prosecuted in Maryland due to
the sheer volume of child pornography possessed by the defendant, announced
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
"It is heartbreaking to think about the thousands of children who
are victimized to produce child pornography and the many child molesters who
draw encouragement from people who collect and trade pictures and videos of
abused children," said U.S. Attorney Rosenstein. "Mr. Bogan's case was a
top priority for our office because he worked with so many children in his
job as a gymnastics instructor."
This case arose from a nationwide investigation of a sophisticated
internet message board conducted last year by the FBI. After determining
that the bulletin board contained child pornography, undercover FBI agents
used the bulletin board to post a link to a file on a covert FBI computer.
The FBI captured the internet addresses of computers that tried to download
the file, which was actually a non-pornographic image file.
Bogan accessed the advertised file on Oct. 25, 2006. FBI agents
traced Bogan's access to the file to his residence in Edgewood, Maryland.
At the time, Bogan was employed as a gymnastics teacher at Baltimore County
Gymnastics, working with children ages five to 15 years.
On March 2, 2007, agents searched Bogan's home and recovered five
cabinets that contained VHS videotapes of child pornography. Agents also
located a separate off-site storage unit that contained child pornography.
Bogan admitted that he had been looking at child pornography for
approximately 20 years, initially collecting child pornography through the
mail. In the 1990's he used the Internet and WebTV, and in the last five
years, the Internet and a computer, to collect child pornography. More than
800 VHS tapes were located, with each tape full of child pornography and
child erotica. A review of Bogan's computer hard-drive revealed numerous
folders and subfolders containing countless images of child pornography,
including depictions of sexually explicit conduct with prepubescent females.
The computer folders were extremely well organized alphabetically and
numerically. Agents also located 21 pairs of girls' underpants in Bogan's
bedroom.
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