Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Our first line of defense against terrorism

From TBO.com:

LAKELAND - When he wasn't sending pornographic movies to and asking for explicit photos from a teenage girl in Polk County, a Maryland man was bragging about his job as a spokesman at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement officers said.

The revelation - actually made to a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl - resulted in the arrest of 55-year-old Brian J. Doyle at his Silver Spring, Md., home Tuesday night, officials said.
During his Internet chats, Doyle quickly revealed his name and job, and he sent his office and government-issued cell phone numbers. The information allowed detectives to quickly verify Doyle's identity, the Polk County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday night.


Doyle moved quickly in other regards, officials said, sending enough sexually explicit messages and movie clips that they were able to secure a warrant for his arrest on 23 felony counts roughly two weeks after he responded to the detective's profile.

Doyle has a first appearance hearing today at 1:00 p.m. in Montgomery County, Md., the Polk County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday morning.

The charges stem from Doyle repeatedly requesting the girl he was pursuing to purchase a Web camera so that she could send explicit images to Doyle, sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers said. Doyle promised to reciprocate, she said.

He also sent numerous pornographic movie clips to the girl and used America Online's Instant Messenger program to carry on sexually laced conversations, a news release stated.
Maryland officials arrested Doyle at his home and seized his computer. It was unclear Tuesday whether Doyle used his office computer to carry out any of the conversations. He remains jailed awaiting extradition to Florida, Rodgers said.


"We take these allegations very seriously and will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation," Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said.

Doyle, a deputy press secretary, has been at the department since it was created in 2002. He started as a spokesman at the Transportation Safety Administration.

The charges against Doyle are the second involving a Homeland Security official and alleged improper sexual conduct toward a minor in Central Florida in the past six months.

In October, Tampa's newly appointed Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge, Frank Figueroa, was arrested in an Orlando shopping mall, accused of exposing himself to a teenage girl.

Figueroa is scheduled to appear in court this morning to enter a guilty plea in that case.

Every call to and from a government issued cell phone has to be accounted for and anything you do on your office computer can be monitored. In fact DHS employees sign a form granting blanket consent to have their homes searched so that there is no need to even get a warrant. How did this man think he was going to get away with anything like this?