Former Del Rio Sector U.S. Border Patrol Agent Pleads Guilty to Production and Possession of Child Pornography
(Press Release) In San Antonio, on Thursday, October 17, 2019, a former Del Rio Sector U.S. Border Patrol agent assigned to the Uvalde Station admitted to producing and possessing child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash and FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad, 37-year-old Vernon Lee Millican of Leakey, TX, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. By pleading guilty, Millican admitted that between April 2015 and June 2018, he used multiple devices to produce and possess images and videos of himself sexually assaulting a prepubescent minor; and, depicting the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Millican was arrested on January 31, 2019, after a federal search warrant was executed at his home. He has since remained in federal custody. Millican faces between 15 and 30 years in federal prison. Sentencing is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on January 23, 2020, before Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio.
FBI agents, together with the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon, investigated this case with assistance from the Real County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
