APG Civilian Employee Pleads Guilty to Child Porn

A 42-year-old Aberdeen Proving Ground employee who works on the Edgewood Arsenal side of the base pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of possessing child pornography.

David Earl Jones of Jarrettsville, a civilian employee at APG, produced more than 180 videos and 650 photographs of unsuspecting women and children in various stages of undress, authorities said.

Jones was arrested on April 15, 2010 after the Harford County Sheriff’s Office received a call that a man was “seen looking through a window of a Maryland residence and taking pictures of a 15-year old girl who was fully undressed in her bedroom,” according to a prepared statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

“Police arrived at the scene and, after a brief foot pursuit, arrested Jones,” the statement said. “While in custody, Jones was allowed to make a telephone call and was overheard instructing an individual to delete his Facebook account from the computer.”

Authorities executed search warrants at his Jarrettsville home and at his job and seized the photos and videos.

“Computers, compact discs and DVDs were recovered from both locations,” the release said.  “Three of the compact discs contained 186 videos and 650 photographs of numerous, naked children and women, all in their homes and unaware that they were being filmed.”

Authorities have identified at least seven minor victims and one adult female from the images that Jones produced.

“Several additional victims cannot be identified because Jones did not film their faces,” the statement said.

All of the victims attended the same school, authorities said. Jones also had what appeared to be yearbook photographs of some of the victims on his computer as well, authorities said.  

A child in Jones’ care also had been photographed and videotaped from the time she was 13 to 17 years old, authorities said.

“Jones would hide in closets and outside windows in order to film the child in various states of undress,” the statement said. “Jones took at least 61 video images and 156 photographs of the girl, all of which were recovered from a compact disc in Jones’ workplace.”

Authorities also recovered a video of a 16-year-old girl who in 2008 filed a police report that said she “saw a flash outside of her bedroom window and believed that she was being filmed.”

As part of Jones’ plea agreement, he is required to register as a sex offender where he lives, where he works and where he is a student under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Under the plea agreement, Jones and the government have also agreed that if the court accepts the agreement, Jones will be sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

Authorities said U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake has not yet set Jones’ sentencing date.

United States attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Harford County Sheriff L. Jesse Bane; and Superintendent of the Maryland State Police Colonel Terrence Sheridan, jointly announced the guilty plea.

Jones’ apprehension was Part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to fight the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006. For information about Maryland's program click here.