The FBI's closer against child porn

Employing a respectful demeanor toward suspects who would inspire only revulsion in others, Maureen Lese is in the vanguard of the FBI's attempts to combat one of the fastest-growing illegal activities on the Internet.

"You will find a lot of agents who don't want to work these cases," said Lese, who has focused exclusively on child pornography cases for the past seven years. "People tell me I'm going to get to that point where I'll say, 'Enough is enough.' But I take such satisfaction in the work that I do to stop the predators and rescue children."

Staying cool in the face of offenders who see nothing wrong in their repeated victimization of children, treating them instead with outward respect, she said, is a key tool to uncovering their crimes. She won't divulge too much detail about her methods, but there is no doubt that she is one of the best at one of the bureau's ugliest jobs. Last fall she received the 2007 U.S. Attorney's Office Law Enforcement Recognition Award.

"You can lead people to make statements against their own self interest," said Ralph Boelter, FBI special agent in charge of the Minneapolis office. "Maureen is a master at that."

Sitting down with one suspect at his workplace, Lese was direct and matter of fact.

"Do you know why we're here?" she recalled asking.

"Yes," he said. "It's about the pictures."

He told her about the folder on his home computer marked "private," the one that contained images of him having sex with his three young daughters.

The information Lese pulled out of the man helped lock him away for 30 years. (The man's name is public information, but the Star Tribune is not naming him because it would identify his children.)

"When you start talking to these guys, you never know what you're going to find," she said.

A 'need for justice'

Lese has been an FBI agent for more than 16 years. Her interest in the bureau goes back further.

"I was always interested in law enforcement," she said. "I had this need for justice and to try to make things more fair for people."

She studied accounting and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1987 with a degree in psychology because "I knew that was a way to get into the FBI," she said.

Lese also knew she had to work for a few years after college before the FBI would take her. For three years, she worked at the Illinois Math and Science Academy. She joined the FBI in March 1992.

For her first several years with the bureau, she worked on violent crimes. In recent years, she has focused on the Internet exploitation of children. Child pornography is one of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sometimes, Lese patrols cyberspace personally, going into chatrooms and onto message boards at all hours of the day or night to find online purveyors of porn trading images and film clips.

Sometimes, she helps local investigators move a case into the federal system where prison sentences can be longer. She also lends a helping hand to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which now has 12 full-time investigators working to protect kids online.

Coordination is key

In the case of Lyle Robert Paton, Lese wasn't the one to catch him. In fact, she came into the case long after his arrest. But her work helped nail the repeat offender.

Paton, a married Minneapolis man with two previous convictions -- one involving sex with a 14-year-old boy and another for possessing obscene material -- was seen entering the woods of St. Paul's Lilydale Park with a digital camera and five boys. After a citizen alerted authorities, a police officer arrested Paton as the group left the park.

Police learned that Paton had been photographing the boys in the nude. In fact, he'd photographed some of the boys for years after befriending them and their families. In all, investigators identified 25 victims of sexual abuse or exploitation.

A big part of Lese's job, she said, is getting guilt-ridden or disbelieving family members to cooperate and let their children talk to investigators. "It's a hard thing for kids and parents to admit to," she said.

She convinced them in much the same way she convinces offenders: calmly and with respect. In 2007, Paton was sentenced to five concurrent life terms for producing child pornography.

Taking on a 'father figure'

But her strongest skill may be getting the bad guys to spill.

In June 2006, the Minnesota task force learned about Todd Edward Hammond through other pedophiles who had gotten caught in Florida and Kentucky.

The Andover man had been having sex with a 12-year-old mentally disabled boy. Hammond, who went by the Internet chat names of "psyco_duo" and "screamin_t," took his laptop, a web cam and the boy to hotel rooms where he sexually assaulted the boy on live streaming video that he sent to other pedophiles' computers.

Like many pedophiles, Hammond had gained parents' and kids' trust. He worked as a mentor to children at risk.

"His victim was one of the kids at risk who needed a father figure," Lese said.

She sat down with Hammond in the Anoka County jail and asked him to tell his story. "He was willing to talk," she said.

He was sentenced in July 2007 to 30 years in federal prison.

Lese doesn't have children. But she said she believes she could still do this work if she did "because of the end product." The funny thing is, Lese said, the bad guys know that the cops are on their trail.

"They know, but they're hoping they don't come across us," she said.

According to the people who work with her, they should hope that they don't come across Lese.

"There is nothing more fundamental than the protection of children," said Boelter, Lese's boss. "And there is nothing more fundamentally important than what Maureen is doing."

James Walsh • 612-673-7428