Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Albert A. Firlie, age 67, of Severn, Maryland, today to 135 months in prison followed by supervised release for life for possessing child pornography. Judge Bredar enhanced Firlie’s sentence based upon a 1991 child abuse conviction in Howard County, Maryland involving the sexual abuse of a prepubescent girl. Judge Bredar also ordered that upon his release from prison, Firlie 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).
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Postal Inspector in Charge David G. Bowers of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service - Washington Division; Special Agent in Charge Andre Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tim Altomare.
According to Firlie’s plea agreement, beginning no later than October 2003, Firlie obtained child pornography from the internet. In November 2007 and April 2009, he created email accounts with a username that combined his first name with the first name of the victim in his child sex abuse case. Firlie used the internet to try to locate the victim and her family as recently as June 2014.
From Dec. 12, 2008 to Dec. 26, 2014, Firlie uploaded approximately 120 videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, using a website that provided users with remote “cloud" storage for media files. On Sept. 13, 2014, Firlie attempted to upload 51 videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct to another email address, using a different website that also provided users with the remote storage. That website detected the use of its cloud services for the storage of child pornography and reported the matter to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who in turn reported the matter to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
On Feb. 3, 2015, investigators executed a search warrant at Firlie’s residence recovered a large number of computers and other digital storage media which contained over 600 images, including over 120 videos depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The images included prepubescent minors and sadistic or masochistic conduct.
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.justice.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, HSI-Baltimore, Maryland State Police and Anne Arundel County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Myers, who prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
