Homeland Security Official Arrested

April 4, 2006

MIAMI — The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to
seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, was arrested at his residence in Maryland on
charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and transmission
of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of
Polk County, Fla.

Doyle, of Silver Spring, Md., had a sexually explicit
conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose
profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County
Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

The girl was an undercover Polk County Sheriff's Computer Crimes
detective, the sheriff's office said.

Doyle sent the girl pornographic movie clips and had sexually
explicit conversations via the Internet, the statement said.

During other online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, that
he worked for the Homeland Security Department and offered his
office and government issued cell phone numbers, the sheriff's
office said.

Doyle also sent photos of himself to the girl, but authorities
said they were not sexually explicit.

On several occasions, Doyle instructed her to perform a sexual
act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he
wanted to have with her, investigators said.

Doyle later had a telephone conversation with an undercover
deputy posing as the teenager and encouraged her to purchase a
web camera to send graphic images of herself to him, the
sheriff's office said.

He was booked into Maryland's Montgomery County jail where he
was waiting to be extradited to Florida, the sheriff's office
said.

There was no immediate response to messages left on Doyle's
government-issued cell phone and his e-mail, and he could not be
reached by phone at the jail for comment.

Homeland Security press secretary Russ Knocke in Washington said
he could not comment on the details of the investigation. "We
take these allegations very seriously, and we will cooperate
fully with the ongoing investigation," Knocke said.

Doyle, who is the fourth-ranking official in the department's
public affairs office, was expected to be placed on
administrative leave Wednesday morning.

HoustonChronicle.com --
http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: National news
This article is:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3771736.html





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