FRANKLIN, Maine — A man from Hancock County who has been serving in the Coast Guard in Florida the past four years has pleaded guilty to producing child pornography and is awaiting sentencing in federal court.
Drew Alexander Young, 24, faces a minimum term of 15 years behind bars and a maximum of up to 30 years in prison, according to federal court documents filed in Miami. He also faces a term of supervised release following incarceration of between five years and life, and a fine of up to $250,000.
Young, who prosecutors say used the name “Drew Y” and “dyshizz1” in online communications, is scheduled to be sentenced in Florida on April 5, 2016.
Federal court documents indicate that the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service looked into Young’s activities after receiving a complaint from another Coast Guard member that he had sexually harassed her via text messages and had assaulted her.
Investigators examined Young’s phone and found “numerous” text messages Young allegedly exchanged with girls under the age of 18, with most between the ages of 14 and 16 but some as young as 13, court documents indicate. Young is accused of asking girls to take explicit photographs of themselves and to send them to him, and of receiving such photographs in return.
Federal officials allege that Young propositioned underage girls, sent sexually explicit videos of girls to a 13-year-old girl, and tried to arrange meetings with some of them — meetings that investigators do not believe ever occurred.
“The defendant had a collection of explicit videos of underage girls, some as young as 8 years old,” federal officials wrote in a Sept. 15, 2015, detention order.
Young admitted to asking for and receiving sexually explicit photographs from some of the girls he contacted through text messages sent to and from his phone, prosecutors indicated in the order. He pleaded guilty in December to the child porn production charge in an agreement with prosecutors, who have promised to dismiss child porn distribution and possession charges at his sentencing.
Last fall, Young and his family asked federal officials that Young be released and reside with them at their home in Franklin, but their request was denied, according to court records. At the time, the documents indicated, Young was in the process of “being separated” from the Coast Guard.
According to Florida media reports, Young was an enlisted fireman, or E3, which is considered a low rank in the Coast Guard.
