Greenbelt, Maryland – Anthony Michael Mileo, age 54, of Huntingtown, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to the federal charge of possession of child pornography. At the time of his indictment in January 2020, Mileo was a Corporal with the Maryland National Capital Park Police Department and was a K9 handler.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge John Eisert of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Colonel Woodrow W. Jones III, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Calvert County State’s Attorney Robert Harvey.
According to his plea agreement, on August 7, 2019, the Maryland State Police (MSP) Computer Crimes Unit received a referral from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the possession of child sexual abuse material. The cybertip indicated that video files documenting child sexual abuse were uploaded to a document storage application account. The document storage application provided the contents of the account to investigators. The content included over a dozen video files depicting child sexual abuse and provided the IP address associated with the transfer of videos depicting child sexual abuse to the account on July 1, 2019.
As detailed in the plea agreement, investigators learned that the e-mail address was associated with Mileo and the IP addresses were associated with an Internet Service Provider account located at Mileo’s address in Calvert County, Maryland. On September 5, 2019, MSP obtained a search warrant for the contents of the e-mail account which revealed approximately 71 video files depicting child sexual abuse, including prepubescent minors and images depicting children in bondage being sexually abused. The video files included a series of known victims of child abuse identified through NCMEC. The e-mail account also contained non-contraband material, including employment information associated with Mileo.
On November 7, 2019, members of the MSP and HSI executed a search warrant at Mileo’s residence and recovered three cellular telephones. Mileo admitted during the plea hearing today that the files he uploaded depicting the sexual abuse of children could be accessed from any device with an Internet connection, including the cellular telephones recovered by investigators. For example, Mileo uploaded the document storage application onto his personal iPhone, which allowed him to access the images of child sexual abuse he had previously uploaded to the application.
Mileo previously faced related charges in Calvert County, but those charges were dismissed in favor of federal prosecution.
Mileo and the government have agreed that, if the Court accepts the plea, Mileo will be sentenced to between 48 months and 78 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has scheduled sentencing for February 17, 2021, at 10:00 a.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 Attorney’s 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.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended HSI Baltimore and the Maryland State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for their work in the investigation and thanked the Office of the State’s Attorney for Calvert County for its assistance. Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy F. Hagan, who is prosecuting the federal case.
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