CSAM cases are common at Joint Base Langley-Eustis and expected to be a top priority of the Office of Special Trial Counsel. If you’re an Airman suspected of a child pornography offense at JB Langley-Eustis or any other military installation, this page will give you steps you can take right now to help yourself. The page also explains how a sting operation can start as an indecent communication or suspected possession case but become a far more serious court-martial. The page gives tips on what kind of lawyer a CSAM case at Langley requires, and answers whether to tell your family about your situation.
While most people looking for legal help with this kind of case use the term “child pornography,” which is still used in the UCMJ as well, courts and law enforcement now prefer to call it “child sexual abuse material,” or CSAM, and this page uses both.
The relevant portions of the UCMJ, the potential punishments, and the investigative processes, are covered on our Computer Crimes Against Children page. This page is your investigation survival guide.
By the time your first sergeant tells you that you have a meeting with OSI in the morning, the investigation is well underway. A provider like Google or Snapchat will have flagged your files and shut down your account, might have sent a tip to NCMEC, and the tip was sent to military investigators before anyone said a word to you. You might have gotten a notice from your service provider about your account being suspended, but the rest of the investigation is conducted in secret. In the background, the agents will have obtained authorization to seize and search your devices and to raid your home or barracks. Your ISP, email, bank, and other records might already be in the subpoena process.
How common are CSAM cases at Langley-Eustis?
Very common. As of August 2026, the three most recently completed courts-martial on the Langley-Eustis docket were child pornography cases. Child sex cases draw maximum scrutiny, especially when they have corroboration like CSAM cases inevitably will. While OSTC prosecutors defer the majority of the cases referred to it, they keep child pornography prosecutions, and our OSI and OSTC sources expect the CSAM caseload to continue through 2027 and beyond.
Even federal prosecutors get work from JB Langley-Eustis. In June 2026, a service member stationed at Langley was sentenced in federal court to eighteen years for coercing two minors to produce explicit images, a case that started with files on his devices and expanded to evidence obtained from his Snapchat and Apple accounts, and ended as a coercion and enticement prosecution on top of the CSAM allegation.
What should I do right now?
Stop talking and stop creating new evidence. How you handle your devices, behavior, and communication during the investigative case can have a huge impact as the case evolves. The adage applies: When you’re in a hole, stop digging.
- Say nothing about the facts to anyone. Not OSI, not your chain, not your friends, not a counselor or chaplain. If you need mental health care, a lawyer can help you get it without feeding the investigation.
- Don’t consent to a search of any phone, computer, drive, or account. Make OSI get authorization.
- Lock your devices with a PIN or passphrase, not your fingerprint or face. This is a good practice for everyone, but it’s especially important for anyone who thinks law enforcement might come knocking. A memorized passcode is treated the same as speech, with the same degree of constitutional protection as your right to silence. Biometrics generally don’t because they’re not a form of speech. OSI can compel you to give a facial scan or fingerprint, the same as taking blood samples, DNA, or handwriting exemplars. But OSI can’t compel you to give them your PIN or passcode, so don’t.
- Don’t delete anything. Once a person knows an investigation is underway, deleting or destroying evidence can be charged as a separate crime. At a minimum, it can be used as evidence of consciousness of guilt (a guilty mind). It’s also not something an attorney is allowed to advise you on.
- Keep your data on the device, not in the cloud. Turn off app-data backups and cloud backups. Local storage only. Backing up your keychain is fine, especially on Apple.
- Get off Meta products, including WhatsApp. We advise against the use of Meta products, including WhatsApp, for sensitive communications. While WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption for direct messaging, its cloud backups to platforms such as iCloud and Google Drive aren’t encrypted by default, potentially leaving data accessible to third parties, including law enforcement. Furthermore, metadata (contact info, chat logs, timestamps) remains exposed to Meta and law enforcement even when encryption is enabled. For enhanced privacy, we recommend using Signal, which doesn’t maintain cloud backups. We suggest that all essential data be stored and backed up locally.
- Assume anyone who contacts you about sex is working with law enforcement. If someone (like an ex-girlfriend) texts wanting to chat about anything in the sexual realm, asks about past sexual encounters, or steers toward a meetup, don’t answer. More often than not, an outreach like that is a “pretext” message, scripted and observed by law enforcement. It’s a trap that’s been lethal to countless military members.
- Don’t respond to DCSA. If the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency reaches out for a “continuous vetting” clearance interview, merely wanting to discuss your existing clearance, that’s an interrogation in another form. These agents aren’t with law enforcement and they have no law enforcement training, but they’re going to ask you about whatever legal flag provoked them to contact you in the first place. They’re not required to give you a rights advisement, but whatever you say to them can be used against you in court. Whatever you say to them will go into their report and get up-channeled and then inevitably referred to law enforcement. Say nothing and tell your lawyer they made contact.
- Stop all risky conduct now. No pornography of any kind. Don’t exchange intimate images with anyone, or obtain them from anyone, including a spouse or romantic partner. Monkish behavior is self-preservation.
- Make sure someone can reach your lawyer. Pretrial confinement is unusual in these cases but not unheard of. A family member or friend should have your attorney’s number in case you get arrested and can’t make the call yourself.
Does OSI at Langley perform CSAM stings?
Yes. OSI at Langley runs CSAM and ICAC operations, including stings, on its own and in coordination with other law enforcement agencies. Understanding the real scope of the trouble you’re in is the first step of protecting yourself. An Airman who thinks he’s facing a possession charge might make ill-advised decisions, like talking to investigators, if he misperceives the threat and convinces himself he can have it both ways: talk himself out of trouble while keeping the big secret to himself. Consider a case where he thinks he’s in trouble for trying to get an intimate image of a minor during a text exchange. Consider the typical “to catch a predator” sting scenario. Here’s the problem with talking his way out: there was no minor. The agents were the minor. They have every message he sent, so the secret he thinks he’s protecting is already on paper, in their folder, right there on the table, and each new thing he tells them is one more admission stacked on top of an illegal conversation they already have. Communicating with a minor, or with an undercover agent posing as one, can lead to charges for (attempted) sexual abuse of a child under Article 120b, enticement and solicitation under Article 134, and attempted production of CSAM, even if no real child was ever involved and no meeting ever happened. This is how you help OSTC stack charges against you. So: If you’re under investigation, don’t talk to the cops. Ever. Our pages on how CSAM cases are prosecuted and defended and ICAC sting operations explain how this happens.
What kind of lawyer do I need for a CSAM case at Langley?
You need a civilian military defense lawyer who specializes in defending covered offenses, especially CSAM and child-sex cases, and who already has a working relationship with the OSTC District 1 office at Langley. Not every criminal defense lawyer, and not every “former JAG,” is equipped for a child pornography case. In a CSAM case, a lawyer needs deep, specific experience with these cases, not just court-martial experience in general. He needs to know how these cases are built on the government side from start to finish: the initial tip, the search warrant application and how it’s executed, how long the devices sit before they’re analyzed and what that analysis consists of, how the prosecution decides and proves that an image depicts a minor, the role AI now plays in these prosecutions, and the facts that separate a possession case from an attempted sexual abuse charge under Article 120b or a production charge under Article 134. He needs to know not just the sentencing range but what real-life factors drive a sentence up or down. You can’t defend one of these cases without knowing how the perfect investigation and prosecution is supposed to look. Once you know that, you can find where the government’s version falls short and build reasonable doubt out of the gaps. Ask a lawyer to walk you through all of that. His answer will tell you whether he’s equipped for your case. It’s not something a case count can tell you, and it’s not something a firm can fake with a page of AI-generated text.
Should I tell my family I’m under investigation at Langley-Eustis?
Yes. You might need their emotional and financial support, so you should tell them you’re facing an investigation and that you’ve hired or would like to hire a civilian military attorney. You don’t want them to hear it for the first time from a law enforcement agent or someone in your chain of command. Even if they’re eager to help, you can’t discuss the facts with them. Graciously accept their support but remember that there is no family-defendant communication privilege. Say enough that they can help you; not so much that they become witnesses. Our page on telling your family you’re facing a court-martial covers how to strike that balance.
Doesn’t the Air Force give me a free lawyer?
Yes, but not the kind you need at this stage or for this kind of case. The Air Force gives an accused access to an Area Defense Counsel, but at the investigative stage that often means one short meeting, usually with the paralegal, and the same advice a standard uniformed defense lawyer gives everyone: don’t talk to OSI, call us if you get charged. The ADC will get more involved if the case truly requires it (e.g., you get put in pretrial confinement), but during the investigation their role is usually limited to that intake conversation and the basic warning. Other services don’t even provide counsel during the investigative stage. If you want someone working your case while the investigation is pending, which will likely take months and possibly more than a year, you will have to hire an attorney. Most civilian military defense lawyers take the JAG approach anyway: stay quiet, wait, call me when you’re charged. That’s not Gagne, Scherer & Associates’ policy. We get involved immediately, talk to the prosecution often, and stay engaged throughout the cases.
Talk to a JB Langley-Eustis CSAM defense lawyer
If you’re under investigation for a computer crime involving a minor at Langley-Eustis, call Gagne, Scherer & Associates at (224) 935-6172 for a confidential review. We’ll explain what you’re facing, how to deal with OSI, and how to survive the investigation.