Michael McGowan, a 33 year old federal air marshal from Hicksville, has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography and false credentials identifying him as both an FBI agent and a CIA agent, federal officials said. He was arrested by federal postal inspectors on July 21, 2004, at a casino in upstate Verona near the Canadian border. McGowan was held without bail after a federal prosecutor said that one of the pictures seized from his home showed him engaging in sex with an adolescent boy and that he is under investigation for possible child molestation in Texas. He had been arrested twice as a youth, once for allegedly possessing a pipe bomb and once on a grand larceny charge. The two juvenile cases were settled with McGowan getting youthful offender status and the child molestation investigation is continuing in Corpus Christi, Texas. McGowan had been on administrative leave since June 2, when New Jersey state police reported he was being investigated for an apparent incident of "road rage" in which he allegedly pulled his service weapon on another motorist.
McGowan, of 47 Haverford Road, has been charged with taking two boys to Disney World in Orlando in order to engage in sexual activities with them. He pleaded not guilty to the charges on September 27 in Federal District Court in Central Islip and to charges of sexual exploitation of children and transmitting and receiving child pornography. He has been held without bail since July. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
McGowan pleaded guilty in 2005 to the child pornography charge and was sentenced on July 20, 2006, to 20 years in federal prison.
(New York)