Child porn suspect pleads not guilty to threats

7-6-2012 Pennsylvania:

PITTSBURGH -- A child pornography defendant threatened to rape and murder a U.S. postal inspector who helped investigate him, federal authorities charge.

Todd Markley, 49, of Export, pleaded not guilty Thursday during his arraignment by a federal magistrate on charges of possessing the child pornography and e-mailing the alleged threat, both felonies which carry up to 10 years in prison upon conviction.

Markley remained jailed on charges the FBI filed under seal in May that grew out of a U.S. Postal Inspector sting targeting customers of a Los Angeles child porn distributor that was raided in 2006.

The company's records showed Markley purchased 21 movies containing images of nude boys from August 2003 and November 2006, so he was mailed a catalog purporting to be from another child porn distributor in Charlotte, N.C., in May 2011, according to the FBI complaint. In reality, the business was a sting operation run by U.S. postal inspectors.

Markley allegedly responded to the mailing with a request for video catalogs.

Markley's home was searched by federal agents in April after he allegedly paid $54.95 and received by mail two DVDs, one entitled "Curious Boys" and the other containing previews of other DVD child porn videos.

Agents seized the videos mailed to Markley in the sting operation, and also seized a desktop computer and three thumb drives -- two of which agents later discovered contained numerous images of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint.

Markley was not immediately arrested, however, but he was subsequently charged with e-mailing an expletive-filled diatribe to one of the female postal inspectors who searched his home.

In the e-mail, Markley contends he hadn't looked at any of the thumb drive pictures for four or five years and goes on to say that he had helped counsel several troubled boys through some unspecified church ministry.

"You are such a stupid (expletive), that you brought down the type of person you should be promoting," the e-mail said at one point. "Well, an eye for an eye, (expletive)."

Markley contends in the letter that he had counseled 12 youths, 11 of whom had reconciled with their fathers as a result. But he said the 12th boy is "deep into organized crime now" and, through him, Markley claimed to have put a $3,000 bounty on the postal inspector that Markley contends in the May 31 e-mail will be carried out by that young man and some unspecified associates. ..Source.. by GpErie.com