Investigative Group

EXCLUSIVE: Known Perv With ‘Emotional Problems’ Got NASA Security Clearance, Then Caught With Child Porn

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Ethan Barton Editor in Chief
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A NASA worker with documented emotional problems and an affection for underage girls got a security clearance and then was allowed to retire after he was caught with child pornography, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.

Investigators “found thousands of images of young girls in provocative poses in addition to two images which appear to be child pornography” on an external hard drive belonging to an unnamed NASA employee, said a 2015 NASA Inspector General (IG) report TheDCNF obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The employee admitted he owned the hard drive but claimed he didn’t know that the two pornographic photos existed. The employee was not charged and retired in 2015. (EXCLUSIVE: Feds Wouldn’t Prosecute NASA Intern Caught Downloading Kiddie Porn)

He also sent nude videos and images of himself to a potentially underage girl, created spreadsheets with login information to websites associated with child porn, and possessed police training documents about investigating child predators and computer crimes. (RELATED: The EPA PAID A Child Molester To Retire)

The IG’s findings should not have surprised NASA officials as a background check for the employee’s security clearance revealed similar behavior in the past.

“The document indicated that … [redacted] was investigated for, among other things, showing too much interest in young girls,” the IG report said.

The employee “wanted a girlfriend between the ages of 12-16” and “would never date a girl … over 16 years old,” a former co-worker said, according to the background check. The coworker at first thought the NASA employee “was joking, but later he received at least three separate phone calls at his residence where [redacted] requested [the coworker] attempt to find him a 14-year-old maid/girlfriend.”

Other witnesses interviewed for the NASA employee’s background check said he had “emotional problems,” was “irrational,” “abusive,” “immature,” lacked “self-control,” and was “highly emotional and quick to anger,” the report said. The employee also “may have harassed a rape victim.”

Regardless, NASA determined that “the granting of a security clearance … is clearly consistent with the interests of national security,” a NASA endorsement of the background check said.

The IG probe began after the Brevard County Florida Sheriff’s Office told the watchdog they were investigating the employee for possessing child porn. Both an assistant U.S. attorney and a Florida state’s attorney declined to prosecute the employee for the two child pornography images, but the reason was redacted.

“As [redacted] denied knowledge of the images … there is likewise no direct evidence that he knowingly possessed the images,” the report said.

The employee turned over a computer bag containing his NASA-issued laptop, where IG investigators discovered the external hard drive with the provocative images in one of the bag’s pockets.

“Also on the hard drive was a 216 page document authored and last modified by [redacted] containing short stories, most of which graphically describe an adult male exposing his genitals and/or masturbating in front of young girls between 10 and 16 years old in various situations,” the report said.

The IG also found videos of chat sessions between the NASA employee and a girl who appears to have been a former coworker’s daughter, though redactions make it difficult to tell.

The NASA employee “interacted with her while she was a minor,” the report said.

He “exposed his genitals on several occasions via a web camera” during video chats with the girl and sent emails “with attached still pictures of himself naked,” the report said, though redactions make it difficult to tell if the girl was a minor at the time.

“Additionally, during a series of video chats with [redacted], he made sexually explicit statements and asked sexually explicit questions, which were similar in theme to many of the stories found in the 216 page document described above,” the report continued.

Investigators also discovered spreadsheets with login information for various websites, several of which “were previously identified as being associated with child pornography,” the report said. “[S]everal of the usernames in the list contain [redacted] name, e-mail address or portions of his name.”

Other devices found during a search of the employee’s NASA office had “122 images of two prepubescent girls, approximately 8 to 12 years old,” the report said. “The pictures showed the girls provocatively posed in bikinis, short skirts, shorts and/or high heels.”

Investigators searched the employee’s NASA-issued computer and found “several law enforcement training documents on the computer’s hard drive, some of which pertain to the investigation of sexual crimes against children,” the report said. “There were documents pertaining to computer crime investigations.”

The documents include a 160-page manual titled “Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis,” a 137-page document titled “Electronic Crime Scene Investigation,” and a 299-page document titled “Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations.”

NASA did not respond to a request for comment.

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