A sergeant with the North Dakota Army National Guard's military police unit has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, spanning several years, of sex crimes against children, as reported by the Grand Forks Herald.
E.S. is facing federal charges that include the interstate transportation of underage girls, producing pornographic videos and child pornography. His youngest victim is allegedly six years old.
E.S., 29, faces up to life in prison as well as mandatory 15-year minimum sentences if he is convicted. He was indicted on eight felony counts on March 26 and was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Alice Senechal on March 28.
The Grand Forks Police Department began investigating E.S. in September of 2013. The details of the state's charges were explicit – and involved some of the same victims. The allegations made by the state included sexual acts committed by E.S. against minors.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security got involved and it became a joint investigation, with both local and federal prosecutors having to decide who had jurisdiction.
As the federal government moved in the local prosecutors dismissed all of the state charges against E.S.
E.S. remains behind bars in the Grand Forks County jail, and has been there since January 14.
The exact charges are the transportation of underage girls in both 2007 and 2010 for "interstate and foreign commerce, with the intent that (they) engage in sexual activity." In 2011 he coerced another minor girl into sexual acts and then recorded them on video with the purpose of producing pornography. Other charges include the coercion and enticement of underage girls again in 2012 and 2013. In those cases E.S. allegedly used cell phones and the Internet to entice and then engage the girls into sexual activities. In one instance he was found in possession of child pornography showing a victim that was younger than 12 years old.
A soldier is not usually removed from service until criminal charges become a conviction. E.S. has been with the Army National Guard since 2006. Five years ago he had a yearlong tour in Iraq as part of the Guard's 191st Military Police Company. He returned stateside in 2009 and planned to seek a job with the U.S. Border Patrol or Customs and Border Enforcement, according to reporters.
When E.S. applied for a job with Border Control in June he was required to take a polygraph test. It was during the testing that he admitted to having sent sexually explicit photographs of himself to underage girls – approximately 100 times beginning in 2002 – and receiving photos.
According to police reports, several sexually explicit messages were sent by E.S. in 2011 to a then-14 year-old girl in North Carolina, in which he asked that she "be my little sex slave." The girl is one of the victims listed in the federal charges.
Additionally, Grand Forks police found child pornography on his computer, of both male and female victims aged as young as 6.
Whatever your criminal charges may be, contact a criminal defense attorney for help. The sooner you begin to work on your defense, the more prepared you will be.
