Duke University Associate Director of the Center for Health Policy Arrested on Allegations He Offered, Via the Internet, to Permit a Traveler to Sexually Molest His Adopted 5-Year-Old Son

Frank M. Lombard, 42, has been charged with attempt to persuade a person he did not realize was an task force officer from the Metropolitan Police Department to travel to North Carolina to have sex with Lombard's 5-year-old adopted child, announced MPD Chief Cathy L. Lanier and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington Field Office.

Lombard, 42, is charged by complaint with a violation of 18 USC 2242(a); an offense that could result in a maximum sentence of 20 years. The complaint was signed June 24, 2009 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The complaint alleges Task Force members were told by a confidential source that he/she had witnessed on three or four occasions an individual, alleged to be Lombard, performing oral sex and other sex acts on a child believed to be under the age of ten. The confidential source indicted he was told that others had sexually molested the child. The source was also told that the individual’s live-in, male partner had not participated in the sexual abuse. The complaint alleges that Lombard subsequently told an MPD detective, posing on line as an interested party, that he had performed multiple sexual acts on his 5-year-old adopted child and that that the task force member could do the same if he flew to the Raleigh/Durham area. A warrant for Lombard’s arrest was then obtained.  

FBI special agents and officers from the Durham Police Department and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation arrested Lombard without incident at his home in the Raleigh, North Carolina area the evening of June 24, 2009. Two children at the home, including the 5-year-old child allegedly offered for sex, were taken into protective custody by the North Carolina Department of Social Services.  

A complaint is merely a formal accusation. It is not proof of guilt, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Investigators in the case are part of the FBI/MPD Child Exploitation Task Force in the Washington Field Office. The Task Force is part of a nationwide innocent images initiative seeking to combat the proliferation of child pornography/child sexual exploitation, specifically targeting the protection of children whose exploitation occurs through the use of online computers.

The FBI’s Innocent Images National Initiative web site, http://www.fbi.gov/innocent.htm, provides a resource for parents, teachers, and most importantly, children. It includes a Parent Guide to Internet Safety: http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm, and links to web sites specifically designed to teach children and teenagers about internet dangers and on line safety.