HSI Baltimore investigation leads to coach’s guilty plea on federal child pornography charges
GREENBELT, Md. — A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore and Calvert County Sheriff’s Office investigation resulted in a former youth football coach’s guilty plea to child pornography charges April 18. Moshe Michael Imel, 53, of Owings, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to two federal charges of production of child pornography involving two minor victims.
Imel also agreed to plead guilty to charges related to the sexual abuse of minors in three cases in the Circuit Court for Calvert County.
“Moshe Michael Imel’s crimes are especially disturbing considering he was in a position of trust in the community,” said HSI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris. “As a youth and high school football coach, he was an authority figure and a person these young athletes looked up to. Through his reprehensible actions, Mr. Imel not only violated that trust, but also traumatized his minor victims. HSI will always work with our state and local law enforcement partners to ensure predators like Mr. Imel are held liable for their perverse actions.”
Between July 2018 and November 2020, Imel was an assistant football coach at a Calvert County high school. In March 2021, officials interviewed two victims who reported that Imel groomed and then sexually abused them, beginning when he coached them in a youth football program and continuing through high school. Imel admitted that he directed each victim to expose and touch himself in a sexual way and ultimately engaged in sexual contact with the victims on numerous occasions. Imel also created sexually explicit videos of the victims documenting his abuse.
A search warrant executed at Imel’s residence revealed that his basement included action figures lining the walls, a computer setup, cameras, sex toys and other paraphernalia. A review of 14 electronic devices seized at Imel’s home all contained child pornography or evidence of Imel’s sexual contact with minors.
Imel faces 25 to 40 years in federal prison for production of child pornography. His federal sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 8, 2023, at 9:30 a.m.
Imel will receive his sentences for the state charges after his federal sentencing.
This investigation was conducted by HSI Baltimore and the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office with significant assistance from the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland and the Calvert County States Attorney’s Office.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
HSI encourages members of the public to report child exploitation crimes or suspicious activity by calling the HSI Tip Line at 866-347-2423. The tip line is manned 24 hours a day.
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
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