Man admits to posing as a woman on Facebook, soliciting nude photos of boys

[Blue_Tires]

A Shawnee man who worked for the Olathe School District, the Jewish Community Center and coached boys’ sports teams has pleaded guilty late yesterday afternoon to producing child pornography.

Michael T. Cowley, 38, posed as a 19-year-old woman on Facebook to persuade boys to send him nude photos or pictures of them engaging in sex, federal prosecutors said today.

For those, he traded a nude picture of a girl that he got off the internet, prosecutors said.

Cowley pleaded guilty to one count; three other counts were dismissed. A federal judge in Kansas City, Kan., could sentence him later from 15 to 30 years in prison and fine him up to $250,000.

Cowley drove a bus route for the California Trail Junior High School in Olathe and worked for the community center as director of a summer sports camp for first- through sixth-grade boys and girls, prosecutors said. He also taught a computer class at Bentwood Elementary School in Overland Park and coached boys’ baseball and basketball teams, they said.

His Facebook page called “Ashley” listed 696 friends that included children on teams Cowley coached and children who had contact with him, prosecutors said. Eleven children reported getting nude images from “Ashley” and seven boys reported sending nude images of themselves to the site, prosecutors said.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1521163.html

[MNDemNY]

1. I'm shocked! Someone actually lying on the internets???

[seabeyond]

2. ya, but... i have never thought about that angle. geeeezus. nt

[JonQ]

3. Why would a kid who obviously has internet access

need to trade anything to get nude pictures of girls?

[Quantess]

4. I get it. It's a promise that things will "kick up a notch" later on...

In the boys' minds, there is a chance some action might actually happen.

[Blue_Tires]

5. that's the motivation of what someone who MAY or MAY NOT have been me

did back in college in the good ol' AOL days :hide:

[JonQ]

6. I suppose

no one ever accused teenage boys of being rational when it comes to sex.

[Toasterlad]

7. If It Was Teenagers It Wouldn't Bother Me As Much.

What the article doesn't make clear is whether or not the scumbag was collecting pictures of teenagers or children younger than that. No doubt the writer of the article believes that anyone below the age of 18 is a child, and it makes no difference whether the man was looking at 16 year olds or 6 year olds. I know many on DU and elsewhere share this opinion. The circumstances relayed in the article seem to indicate that he was collecting pictures of 6th grade boys and younger, since those are the teams he coached and some of those players sent in pictures.

I'm certainly not going to make a case for skeevy adults tricking young men into sending nude pictures of themselves being some kind of misunderstood innocent, but to me, there IS a difference between true pedophilia - which to me is perving on kids below the age of puberty - and carrying on inappropriate correspondence with teenagers who are biologically mature.

There are hundreds of thousands of straight men in this country alone who are sexually attracted to teenage girls, and who act on that attraction inappropriately, from cyber sex to actual intercourse. Yet they rarely make the news. Find a man who's interested in teenage boys, though, and it's front-page material. Every fucking time.

Is what the man did illegal? Absolutely. Is it immoral? Without a doubt. Is he a pedophile? I don't know, because I don't have enough information. But I suspect that if the man were coaching a GIRL'S basketball team, this item might not have made the papers.

[notesdev]

8. You gotta be crazy

to take nude pictures of yourself, PERIOD.

There's no good to come of it ever.

[Toasterlad]

9. Never - EVER - Underestimate What Horny Teenagers Will Do

They don't even have to believe that there's a real possibility of sex. They're so fascinated by what's going on with their bodies, and they're SO fucking horny (especially the boys) that the thrill of getting naked and knowing that someone you might possibly be sexually attracted to might see it is more than enough to get them off.

Am I speaking from experience? Let's just say it's a good thing they didn't have webcams, digital cameras, and cell phones when I was 15.