Host of child pornography online bulletin board pleads guilty to transporting child pornography and destruction of records

GREENBELT, Md. — A Maryland man pleaded guilty to transporting child pornography and destruction of records in an investigation conducted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations, and the NASA Office of Inspector General's Computer Crimes Division.

Terry Lee Nolley, 47, of Silver Spring, Md., pleaded guilty on Oct. 25. As part of his plea agreement, Nolley must register as a sex offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).

At his sentencing before U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. on Jan. 25, 2012, Nolley faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years in prison followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release for transportation of child pornography and a maximum of 20 years in prison for destruction of records in a federal investigation.

According to his plea agreement, from December 2006 through August 2008, Nolley and others conspired to operate "Country Lounge," a secure web-based bulletin board dedicated to trading images of child pornography. Members could join this group only upon invitation and after approval by the group's administrators. As of August 2008, 142 members belonged to Country Lounge. From December 2006 through July 2008, Nolley was a web host of "Country Lounge" and conspired to transport child pornography through servers located in Virginia and maintained by him in Silver Spring. After July 2008, Nolley transferred his web-hosting responsibilities to other co-conspirators, but continued to both view and trade images of child pornography. In October 2008, "Country Lounge" was seized by law enforcement authorities.

On Nov. 10, 2009, federal agents interviewed Nolley and instructed him not to remove anything from his residence. Later that day, agents executed a search warrant at Nolley's home and recovered several electronic devices. Nolley admitted that between the interview and the execution of the search warrant, he disposed of four additional hard drives believed to contain child pornography. Specifically, Nolley admitted that he left his home with the four hard drives, and after taking steps to evade law enforcement, threw the hard drives into woods at the side of the road, in an effort to impede the federal investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacy Dawson Belf and U.S. Department of Justice Trial Attorneys LisaMarie Freitas, Darcy Katzin and Jennifer Toritto Leonardo from the Criminal Division Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.