A former Marine corporal who had been working as a clerk at the U.S. Marines Corps Headquarters in Arlington has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, after federal prosecutors accused him of downloading hundreds of explicit images. Kaleb C. Masters was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria earlier this month, after the pornography files were flagged on the military service's network.
Masters was on active duty for four years, then served in the reserves for one year, according to the Marines. His service ended in February 2009. After that, he worked as a civilian clerk at headquarters.
According to plea documents, Masters admits that he downloaded and viewed child pornography on his home and work computers. The documents say forensic analysis of his computers found about 250 pages of Internet searches for terms such as "Underage Porn," 111 child pornography images on his work hard drive and about 300 explicit images on his two personal computers.
Masters' plea agreement says he could face up to 10 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 13.
Karen Scarborough, Masters' attorney, declined to comment on the case.
It wasn't clear Friday whether Masters is still working at the Marines' headquarters.
A spokesman there said Masters didn't show up on the staff e-mail list or in a database, but that didn't necessarily mean his employment had been terminated. Scarborough wouldn't comment on Masters' employment.
Masters first came to authorities' attention in July 2007, when a Marine Corps network operations sensor flagged suspicious files on his computer. Court documents say analysis of those files has been conducted over three years, and was completed in November.
When he was interviewed in May 2009, court records say, Masters told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that he had looked up child pornography at work, but had stopped doing so before his work computer was seized in 2007. He said he continued to download child pornography at home.
Marine Corps officials have said Masters most recently worked as an administrative clerk in the Navy Annex complex.
His military records show that he was a trumpet player in the Marine band while he was on active duty from June 2000 to June 2004. He was stationed in California and Virginia.
He served in the reserves from February 2005 to February 2006 and worked as an administrative clerk.
Emily Babay