Federal agent pleads not guilty to child porn charges
The head of Miami's office of U.S. Immigrations, Customs and Enforcement, Anthony Mangione, pled not guilty to three counts of child pornography in a Miami courtroom today.
Mangione was put on leave in April after federal investigators searched his home and allegedly found images of child pornography.He is charged with transportation, receipt and possession of child pornography.
In 2007 when Mangione was the assistant special agent in charge at the Ft. Lauderdale ICE office he spoke to the Miami Herald about child pornography saying that a generation ago, pornographic images of children were made in Europe or Southeast Asia but Mangione said today it's "everywhere". He told the Herald, "As the technology grew, so did our expertise... be able to track people on computers.''
A call to Mangione's attorney seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Mangione, 50, is not the only federal employee to face child porn charges this year according to Congressional correspondence and the latest Inspector General's reports:
In July, 2011, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) wrote the US Department of Justice asking why a US Attorney who was found to have child pornography on their computer was still working at the Justice Department. According to his office, he has not yet received a response.
In March, 2011, a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee pled guilty to 27 counts of "allowing a child to be used in the production of child pornography and the production, possession, transportation, and receipt of child pornography." According to the Inspector General for the Interior Department, he was fired by the BIA.
In February 2011, after pleading guilty to one count of possession of child pornography, a former NASA contractor was sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment after the NASA Office of Inspector General found the contractor had "used his NASA-issued computer to access and download child pornography".
In November 2010, a DHS Border Patrol intern was sentenced to 6 years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography. Investigators were tipped off after they traced his email internet protocol address to his computer.
In May 2010, a former employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was convicted after DHS and ICE found evidence of child pornography on his government computer. He was sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment.
In August 2010, a Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Patrol agent in Port Huron, Michigan pled guilty to charges of child pornography after he was subject to an investigation and confessed. Investigators found 40 images on his laptop. The Border Patrol agent told investigators he was addicted to child pornography.
According to the latest Pentagon Inspector General semiannual report, the "personal laptop computer of a Navy Reserve lieutenant commander deployed to Qatar was seized after others discovered it contained...an extensive collection" of child pornography. suspected child pornography". The report says the individual served as a DoD civilian senior Intelligence officer with the Office of Military Commissions at the Pentagon. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison.