Cockeysville Man Pleads Guilty to Producing and Possessing Child Pornography

BALTIMORE—Leo Aragon Evans, age 56, of Cockeysville, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to producing and possessing child pornography.

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; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

According to Evans’ plea agreement, on January 10, 2011, a nine-year-old female reported to Baltimore County Police that Evans had repeatedly sexually abused her over the past year. These acts occurred while the victim and a 10-year-old girl were under Evans’ care, sometimes at his home.

The next day, Baltimore County Police searched Evans’ residence and seized a video camcorder and two tapes. Review of the tapes revealed that both depicted images of the nine- and 10-year-old girls engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In the first video, Evans is heard directing one of the victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct while he videotapes the abuse. In the second video, Evans filmed the girls in the bathtub, telling them to stand up so he can film their naked bodies.

Further investigation revealed that Evans had been the subject of three prior investigations involving the sexual abuse of three other minor girls.

On January 19, 2011, a woman reported to the Baltimore County Police that she had used the key she had to Evans’ apartment to retrieve her personal belongings and had discovered two “massagers,” or sexual devices that matched the description provided to police by one of the minor victims. On April 16 and 17, 2011, a family member entered Evans’ apartment, with his permission, to search for family photos and other items of sentimental value, while Evans was detained at the Baltimore County Detention Center. The family member found a baggie containing photos of three of the prepubescent girls, including photos of the victims engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The photographs of one of the victims matched the description of the photographs that she reported to police in 2003, which had been taken of her seven years earlier.

As part of his plea agreement, Evans 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).

Evans faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years in prison followed by up to lifetime of supervised release for production of child pornography, and a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Ellen B. Hollander has scheduled sentencing for June 15, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. Evans remains detained.

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, HSI, Baltimore County Police Department and the Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Office for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson T. Mihok, who is prosecuting the case.