Army Member Stationed at MacDill Pleads Guilty to Production of Child Pornography

TAMPA—United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that Thomas Meyer (42, Riverview) pleaded guilty today to production of child pornography. Meyer faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years, up to a maximum of 30 years in federal prison.

According to court documents, Meyer is a member of the United States Army and is stationed at MacDill Air Force base. Between October 2011 and January 2012, Meyer used Yahoo Messenger to have sexually explicit online chats with a female minor in Pennsylvania and another individual he thought was a 13-year-old female, but who was actually an undercover detective in Kentucky. Per Meyer’s request, the minor female from Pennsylvania sent three pornographic photographs to Meyer’s Yahoo account. Meyer sent the undercover detective images of child and adult pornography, as well as an explicit video of himself. He attempted to persuade the undercover detective to send him sexually explicit pictures of herself.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the MacDill Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations (OSI), the Largo Police Department, the Kenton County (Kentucky) Police Department, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer L. Peresie.

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.”