Marine recruiter faces child porn charges
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 26, 2007 11:24:36 EDT

A Marine recruiter stationed in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was charged July 20 with two felony counts of possessing and distributing child pornography after he allegedly chatted on the Internet with police officers posing as 15-year-old girls and sent them photos of underage girls performing sexual activities, Nebraska state police officials said.

Staff Sgt. Homer Cave, 31, was arrested at his home in Omaha, Neb., on July 19. The investigation began June 6 when he allegedly contacted two police officers online on separate occasions and sent the photos, said Matt Nicholas, the investigator with the Nebraska State Police who arrested him.

Cave was immediately pulled off recruiting duty and put on leave, said Staff Sgt. Bill Lisbon, spokesman for the recruiting station at Des Moines, Iowa, which oversees Cave’s station. He will be relieved of recruiting duties indefinitely, Lisbon said.

“We pride ourselves on public trust and are taking this matter very seriously,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to cooperate with civilian authorities.”

There are no allegations at this time that any criminal behavior took place when Cave visited high schools during recruiting trips, Lisbon said.

Cave was released on bail from the Douglas County Correctional Center on July 20.

Nebraska recently passed a law to increase the penalty for sending a picture of oneself engaged in a sex act with a minor from a misdemeanor to a felony, Lisbon said.

The pictures Cave allegedly sent included one of him “masturbating that did not include the underage girls,” Nicholas said. No pictures included him with the underage girls, he said.

Lisbon said it is too early to speculate what type of punishment Cave could receive under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and that the Corps would await the outcome of the case in civilian courts.

Ellie