Former agent pleads guilty in Delaware sexting case

     This booking photo provided by the Delaware Department of Justice shows Lee Robert Moore. Federal authorities say Moore, a Secret Service agent from Maryland, sent obscene images and texts to someone he thought was a young Delaware girl, sometimes doing it while on duty at the White House. (Delaware Department of Justice via AP)

    This booking photo provided by the Delaware Department of Justice shows Lee Robert Moore. Federal authorities say Moore, a Secret Service agent from Maryland, sent obscene images and texts to someone he thought was a young Delaware girl, sometimes doing it while on duty at the White House. (Delaware Department of Justice via AP)

    Detectives with the Delaware State Police played a key role in a child predator-related case against a U.S. Secret Service officer.

    Lee Robert Moore pled guilty to enticement of a minor and attempting to send obscene images to a minor in a Florida federal court on Wednesday. 

    The 38-year-old Church Hill, Maryland resident was employed by the U.S. Secret Service-Uniformed Division and was assigned to the White House at the time of his arrest on Nov. 9, 2015. Moore has remained in custody since that time and has since been fired. 

    In connection with his plea, Moore admitted that he maintained a profile on the social media application, “Meet24,” which provides a mobile-based platform for exchanging digital images, as well as voice and text messages. 

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    Delaware State Police detectives with the Delaware Child Predator Task Force created a profile on this site, posing as a 14-year-old girl, with whom Moore engaged in a number of online chat sessions, via the “Meet24” and “Kik” mobile apps over a two-month period, including while Moore was at work.

    A number of the online chats between Moore and the undercover officers posing as a female minor were sexual in nature and, on several occasions, Moore sent pictures of himself, including one sexually explicit image.

    According to the plea documents, law enforcement officers discovered that Moore had communicated with a minor in Florida, after his arrest. Moore admitted that in those communications, he sent sexually explicit images of himself and enticed the minor to send sexually explicit photos of herself as well.

    Moore engaged in the same type of behavior with a 14-year-old girl in Texas and another 17-year-old girl in Missouri. Moore requested that his federal charges in Delaware be transferred to the Southern District of Florida so that he could plead guilty to both charges at one time.

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

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