Anne Arundel County Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Sexually Abusing Children to Produce Child Pornography
Defendant Caught After He Downloaded Child Pornography at Work

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Justin M. Bowman, age 26, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, today to 15 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for production of child pornography in connection with images he produced of three minor victims. Judge Bredar ordered that upon his release from prison, 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).

The sentence 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 two occasions in late June 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 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.

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 prosecuted the case.