Former Maryland youth football coach sentenced to 40 years for producing child sexual abuse material
GREENBELT, Md. — An investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore and the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office landed a former youth and high school football coach in federal prison for 40 years, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for producing child sexual abuse material. Moshe Michael Imel, 53 of Owings, received the 40-year prison sentence Aug. 3 for two counts of production of child pornography involving two minor victims.
Imel also pleaded guilty to charges related to the sexual abuse of minors in three cases in the Circuit Court for Calvert County and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 4.
“Moshe Michael Imel’s crimes are especially disturbing considering he was in a position of trust in the community,” said HSI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris. “As a youth and high school football coach, he was an authority figure and a person these young athletes looked up to. Through his reprehensible actions, Mr. Imel not only violated that trust, but also traumatized his minor victims. HSI will always work with our state and local law enforcement partners to ensure predators like Mr. Imel are held liable for their perverse actions.”
Between July 2018 and November 2020, Imel was an assistant football coach at a Calvert County high school. In March 2021, law enforcement officials interviewed two victims who reported that beginning when Imel coached them in a youth football program and continuing through high school, he groomed and then sexually abused them.
Imel admitted that he directed the victims to expose and touch themselves in sexual ways and ultimately engaged in sexual contact with them on numerous occasions. Imel also created sexually explicit videos of the victims documenting his abuse.
Officials searched Imel’s home with a warrant and confirmed that the basement — including the action figures lining the walls, a computer setup, cameras, sex toys and other paraphernalia — was as the victims had described it to authorities. A review of 14 electronic devices seized at Imel’s residence revealed that they all contained child sexual abuse material or evidence of Imel’s sexual contact with minors.
This investigation was conducted by HSI Baltimore and the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office with significant assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland and the Calvert County State’s Attorney’s Office.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of more than 8,700 employees consists of more than 6,000 special agents assigned to 237 cities throughout the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’ largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
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