By Matt Castello
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — In April, Dennis Craig Bell was a Sergeant with the U.S. Capitol Police. Today, the 27-year police veteran is a convict and another statistic in the ugly world of child pornography.
The Woodbridge, Va. resident pled guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to distributing child pornography. He faces a minimum of five years in prison when sentenced Oct. 22.
Bell, 55, first peaked the interest of authorities in December 2009 when he was flagged using a peer-to-peer network set up to share child pornography, according to an FBI affidavit.
At that time, Detective David Abbott of the Manassas City Police Department was able to track down Bell’s home address through his IP address.
On April 15, the FBI executed a search warrant at the home of Bell, who was wearing his police uniform at the time, according to the affidavit.
Initially, Bell claimed he read reports that child porn was readily available on the Internet and wanted to investigate to see if his children could easily find it.
“It was dumb but I wanted to I see how much I could find (because I have children),” Bell said, according to the affidavit.
Files of child pornography were eventually found on the computer in the living-room, the downstairs computer and a Toshiba laptop.
Authorities also found a computer thumb drive in the nightstand of Bell’s bedroom, which contained 75 video files of child pornography, the affidavit stated.
On other computers, authorities found 90 video files and more than 100 still images.
After serving 27 years in the communications department with the Capitol Police, Bell retired following his arrest.
Bell isn’t the first Capitol Police officer to get busted for a matter involving children.
In 2006, U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Michael Malloy was charged with child sexual abuse after he videotaped a sexual act with a 15-year-old girl. In 2008, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
