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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Information, Wednesday, September 19, 2007
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Washington, D.C. - Ensign Troy Alan Lewis, a 39-year-old resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, was found guilty by a federal jury today of one count of using the internet to attempt to induce a minor to engage in an unlawful sexual act with him and one count of traveling in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Lewis, who was three weeks away from obtaining his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences when he committed this offense, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of up to life when sentenced on December 19, 2007, before the Honorable Gladys Kessler.
According to the evidence presented at trial, on Monday afternoon, April 23, 2007, Lewis initiated an online conversation in a Yahoo chatroom with another user whom Lewis believed shared his sexual interest in children. In fact, the person with whom Lewis was communicating was Metropolitan Police Department Detective Timothy Palchak. During the course of their more than 3-hour conversation, Detective Palchak disclosed that he had sexual access to a ten-year-old girl.
Lewis, whose screen name was “Subtle Discrete,” and whose user name was “Pudendal518," probed Detective Palchak for more information about this girl. He ultimately arranged to meet with the child, using Detective Palchak as an intermediary. Lewis then drove from his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, to downtown Washington, D.C., where he expected to meet Detective Palchak, who would, in turn, introduce Lewis to the young girl. Instead, Lewis was placed under arrest for attempted enticement and traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor child.
After his arrest, law enforcement searched Lewis’s Silver Spring home and recovered his computer. Forensic analysis of the computer established that it was the machine used to communicate with Detective Palchak. In addition to Lewis’s computer, officers also recovered a disk containing multiple still and video images of adult men engaged in sexual acts with female children appearing to be as young as three or four.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood and the Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov/.
In announcing today’s verdict, U.S. Attorney Taylor, Chief Lanier, and Assistant Director in Charge Persichini commended the outstanding investigative work of D.C. Metropolitan Police Detectives Timothy Palchak, Jonathan Andrews, Miguel Miranda, and Andre Davis, Federal Bureau of Investigation Supervisory Special Agent Melissa Morrow, Special Agents Scott Schelble, Jill Blackman, and Chad Gallagher, FBI Computer Analyst John Young, Jr., Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Lillian Teng and Allison Kidd and Investigator George R. Taylor, Jr., U.S. Attorney’s Office Paralegal Kim Hall, Legal Assistant LaToya Wade, Litigation Technology Specialist Thomas “Ron” Royal, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julieanne Himelstein and Jocelyn Ballantine.