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Army War College colonel faces federal child pornography charges
Stars & Stripes ^ | 5/15/2014 | Peter Hall

Posted on 05/15/2014 3:59:06 AM PDT by markomalley

An officer assigned to the Army War College in Carlisle, who was previously charged in state court with having child pornography, faces new charges in federal court after his wife allegedly found images on his home computer, court documents say.

In his work at the college, Col. Robert J. Rice, 56, designed strategic war game exercises. He also authored papers on topics such as a comparison of civil-military affairs under former secretaries of defense Robert J. McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld.

At home, prosecutors said, he worked to deflect his wife's suspicions of infidelity that eventually led to more than 120 child pornography charges in state court last year. Rice is awaiting trial on those charges in Cumberland County Court, according to court records.

The U.S. attorney's office in Harrisburg on Wednesday filed an indictment charging Rice with possession and distribution of child pornography, charges that carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

Rice had admitted to his wife, Marilyn, years earlier that he was addicted to pornography and patronized strip clubs and she began to suspect he was having an affair, according to the indictment.

Because his wife regularly searched his personal computer, the colonel stopped saving pornography to the hard drive and began using portable storage devices instead, court papers say.

In one of her searches, Marilyn Rice found the colonel had placed an ad with nude photographs of himself on an adult dating website, the indictment says. Marilyn Rice installed software on her husband's computer that tracked his activity.

After returning from a trip to Florida last year, Rice's wife reviewed the data recorded by the software that she had installed and saw what she believed to be child pornography and a chat conversation about finding such material on the Internet, according to the court records.

She ordered her husband to leave their home and turned his computer over to police.

Police obtained a warrant to search the computer and said they found Robert Rice had viewed images of child pornography, copied them to a removable disk, chatted with another person online about trading images and distributed images depicting child sexual abuse over the Internet.

The search also revealed software designed to conceal Rice's online activities each time the computer was turned off, and evidence that he had viewed child pornography since early 2009, the records say.

Rice began working at the War College in 2010 as a member of its support staff and was not a teacher, a school spokeswoman said. He began his military service as a field artillery officer in 1985.

"As to the federal charge, this is the legal process taking its course and, as always, we are cooperating as needed with law enforcement," public affairs officer Carol Kerr said.

Attorney Joseph Caraciolo, who represents Rice in state court, did not return a call.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: armywarcollege; carlisle; childporn

1 posted on 05/15/2014 3:59:06 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley

Sheesh. 29 years of service down the drain. The wife gets nothing too. He was really stupid and also sick of course. What a disaster for the entire family.


2 posted on 05/15/2014 4:02:52 AM PDT by napscoordinator (Governor Scott Walker 2016 for the future of the country!)
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To: markomalley

Stories like this make me wonder about the children involved. Are they identified? Do they get help? Were their parents aware? Do they even know?? Evil is rampant.


3 posted on 05/15/2014 4:18:22 AM PDT by FES0844
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To: markomalley

Seems to me this type of deviant is more the rule than the exception in our “modern” military.

Honor means nothing anymore.


4 posted on 05/15/2014 4:42:05 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Bible Summary in a few verses: John 14:6, John 6:29, Romans 10:9-10)
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To: napscoordinator
There have been instances where a member of the military have been sentenced to Leavenworth but did not forfeit their pay and allowances. Officers cannot have their permanent grade reduced. This allowed them to support their family. Granted, most cases I heard about involved families with children. His retirement pay, now that is another matter.
5 posted on 05/15/2014 4:53:32 AM PDT by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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To: markomalley

Cheating on his wife and lying to her about it while giving her the gun and bullets to shoot him with, the child porn he was storing on portable drives.

And he took a trip allowing her to load tracking software on his computer that he left at home with her, which is how she got him.

Definite Train wreck.


6 posted on 05/15/2014 4:56:13 AM PDT by sickoflibs (Obama : 'I never said that you can keep your doctor . Republicans lie about me ')
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To: markomalley

hell hath no fury . . . .


7 posted on 05/15/2014 5:33:58 AM PDT by Oratam
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To: markomalley

I begin to suspect the upper echelons of FedGov are permeated with deviants and the depraved. Perhaps it is the unlimited power over other people now provided by our overreaching government that attracts these perverts.

A normal man might be repulsed by being given control over other peoples’ lives, but for those with an abnormal appetite for power; it’s a perfect fit for their behavior.


8 posted on 05/15/2014 5:36:25 AM PDT by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: FES0844

“Stories like this make me wonder about the children involved. Are they identified? Do they get help? Were their parents aware? Do they even know?? Evil is rampant.”

Some are identified but they are often even more traumatized when they learn there is video of their abuse being passed around.

Several have won multi-million dollar settlements from wealthy people who possessed/traded the images.


9 posted on 05/15/2014 6:24:55 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: markomalley

Fear not - the New, More Accepting, Pervert Friendly, Army is here, thanks to The Won.


10 posted on 05/15/2014 12:15:48 PM PDT by GladesGuru (Islam Delenda Est - because of what Islam is and because of what Muslims do.)
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