LARGO – Investigators claim there were more than 600 prurient photos of children on the home computer of Jamie Bogdan, a former Largo police officer. The 32-year-old man is now serving a five-year term in federal prison after he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court June 14 to possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor. He admitted to having downloaded child pornography for nearly a year.
Bogdan was sentenced Sept. 13 by federal Judge Susan C. Bucklew in Tampa. At the time of his sentencing, Bogdan was working as a security officer at BJ’s Wholesale Club in Fort Myers where he lived with his mother. He joined the police department Jan 5, 2004 and resigned in October, 2006, after learning he was under investigation by the FBI. He was arrested three months later after an indictment was handed up.
Bogdan was indicted in January, 2007 by a federal grand jury sitting in Tampa. A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman said the indictment stemmed from an investigation by the Innocent Image Task Force, headed by FBI agents in Tampa but with investigators on loan from area police departments, including Largo.
Largo police spokesman Mac McMullen in October said the local department learned of its officer being a suspect from the Largo detective working as part of the task force.
“The task force is an intelligence driven, proactive investigative initiative that combats the proliferation of child pornography and child sexual exploitation facilitated by the Internet,” explained FBI spokesman Steve Cole.
