‘The youngest kids are the most vulnerable’

Effort aimed to halt child pornographers in Maine on the spot

Wed, 11/13/2013 - 1:15pm

Kay Stephens

Interior of what a fully-equipped forensic mobile unit looks like. (Courtesy Lt. Glenn Lang)

Mainely Girls Executive Director Mary Orear is spearheading an effort to raise funds for a new forensic mobile unit. (Courtesy Mary Orear)

Interior of one of the CCU’s converted cargo vans. (Courtesy Maine Computer Crimes Unit)

More space is needed for multiple examiners to work a single case. (Courtesy Maine Computer Crimes Unit)

Interior of what a fully-equipped forensic mobile unit looks like. (Courtesy Lt. Glenn Lang)

Mainely Girls Executive Director Mary Orear is spearheading an effort to raise funds for a new forensic mobile unit. (Courtesy Mary Orear)

Interior of one of the CCU’s converted cargo vans. (Courtesy Maine Computer Crimes Unit)

More space is needed for multiple examiners to work a single case. (Courtesy Maine Computer Crimes Unit)

The most disturbing thing you can think of happens everywhere in Maine. People—the majority of them male—sit behind their keyboards or flip through their cell phones when no one else is around. What they are watching is unspeakable.

In 2008, data compiled by law enforcement agencies indicated that 2,155 individual computers in Maine had been identified as trafficking in the most hardcore images and movies of infants and toddlers being tortured and raped. Because the majority of sex offenders prey on family members, friends or acquaintances, the abuse can start early and continue for years. Many of the victims are infants or toddlers; the “older” victims being abused are 14- and 15-years-old.

Finding and arresting people who disseminate or traffic in child pornography in Maine is the majority of Lt. Glenn Lang’s job. Lang supervises the Maine’s Computer Crimes Unit, which investigates the production, selling and downloading of child pornography in the state. They annually prosecute between 70 and 80 of the highest volume traffickers in Maine. Based on their own sleuthing and a slew of tips, the CCU visits two to four houses or businesses each week in every part of Maine. With search warrants in hand, they seize all digital devices on the premises. Simultaneously, they interview the suspect. But here’s where an investigation can either go exceedingly well or get bogged down into the annals of Backlog Hell.

To do their job effectively, Lang and his team of 16 employees need a forensic mobile unit (a van) with them when visiting a suspect, so they can verify or disprove what the suspect says in the interview by previewing the laptop or digital devices on site. If they have to send all the equipment back to the lab in Vassalboro, that’s where the bottleneck in the system occurs, which hinders the case.

The single biggest problem is that the CCU only has two converted, retrofitted cargo vans to work with. Both are aging, and experiencing frequent power blow-outs. And neither have the kind of room needed to allow for multiple examiners to work a single case.

Much like the LifeFlight of Maine helicopters that service every area of Maine, a fully equipped forensic van is needed to work all corners of the pine tree state. The inadequacy of the retrofitted vans are hindering the CCU from being as efficient as they could be in identifying and arresting those involved in the burgeoning crime of producing, selling and/or possessing child pornography in Maine.

Former Camden teacher and Mainely Girls Executive Director Mary Orear has worked with adolescents for more than 40 years. A staunch advocate for children and adolescents, especially girls, she recently founded a nonprofit undertaking a campaign to raise $100,000 to buy a new mobile forensic lab for the state Computer Crimes Unit.

“About a year and a half ago, I saw a story on Maine Watch about how the Computer Crimes Unit in Vassalboro went after the child pornographers in this state. However, because of their lack of equipment, they had such a backlog and they needed more help,” said Orear. “About five or six months later, I had a nagging feeling, wondering if they got the help they needed. So, I called Lt. Glenn Lang and he said there were two or three major needs not being funded by the department; the number one need being this forensic mobile unit.”

A phone call with Lang confirmed this was still the issue.

“To be really effective, we need a fully equipped van with two forensic stations in the back, which can also function as an interview room,” he said. “Possession of hardcore child pornography is really a symptom of a much greater problem. These people want to have sexual contact with children and every study and statistic I’ve seen in the last five years has stated that 80 percent of these people [who possess child pornography] are in fact, hands-on offenders.

“What we’re trying to do each and every time we go out is bring an expert who administers polygraph tests,” he said. “So that if we get to a house, we can determine with a polygraph test on the spot if this person is one of those 80-percent who is a hands-on offender. The two times we were able to get out polygraph examiner to come out with us, we were able to get confessions from these guys.” This field previewing routinely results in confessions of 95 percent of suspects, when confronted with the offending images, said Lang.

Most people don’t realize it takes an inordinate amount of time and effort for forensics team to make correlations between someone’s actions and seized digital devices, which contributes to the backlog. If the CCU can get a confession at the moment of the device seizure, it takes a tenth of the time to complete the forensic examination. In some cases, that can lead to an immediate arrest.

“Our best chance to get any admissions out of these guys and to solve these cases is right on the scene,” said Lang. “If we’re forced to wait a week or a month after we confront someone, the chances of getting a confession out of [them] is close to zero.”

Asked if the Maine child pornography problem is worse than other states, he said he didn’t have any comparable data.

“It’s a national and worldwide trend,” he said. “But it’s always a percentage of the population who does this. If you have more people in that area, you have more problems in that area.”

The forensic mobile unit is also used to investigate the sex slavery trade, as well as under-age sexting, although these cases aren’t as prevalent as child pornography. “It goes widely under-reported in Maine,” said Lang. “When things go critical, we hear about them.”

Orear and Mainely Girls have been committed to this issue for the past year and even managed to raise nearly $10,000 for the forensic mobile unit before receiving the official go-ahead. Lang and the CCU are fully on board with her fundraising efforts.

“I think it’s the helplessness of these children who can’t in any way defend themselves that is the ultimate definition of a victim,” said Orear. “The older ones — 13, 14, 15 years — it’s hard enough for them to protect themselves against this, but child pornographers routinely target toddlers and infants, children who don’t even stand a chance of protecting themselves. That’s really what grabbed me. It is a crime that has really developed over the last 25 years. As a society, it is our responsibility to protect children.”

To date, Mainely Girls’ efforts have generated more than $25,000 in donations and the nonprofit is currently appealing to individuals, foundations and corporations. “Interestingly, many male donors have really stepped up their support around this,” said Orear. “It’s really gratifying to see.”

To find out more about how you can help or contribute, contact Orear directly at mainelygirls2@gmail.com.

To report any type of online child exploitation, contact National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or contact Lt. Glenn Lang directly at glang@mcctf.org.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com