A former youth counselor at Fort Meade was sentenced Friday to eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a minor and abusive sexual contact.
Anthony Dennis Williams II, 28, of Severn also was ordered to three years of probation by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz.
Williams was a counselor at Fort Meade's Youth Services Center and ran a program called Passport to Manhood. In his plea agreement, Williams acknowledged engaging in sexual contact with a child between the ages of 12 and 16.
Williams was accused of abusing two boys in 2010 and 2011 before he left his job in 2012.
He shared explicit text messages with boys and brought one of them to an attic where he inappropriately touched him, according to the plea agreement filed in June. Williams admitted to having sex with another boy, according to the plea agreement.
An investigation was launched after a parent of one of the boys found text messages on the boy's phone last year, according to the plea agreement.
Williams was facing a maximum of two years in prison for a charge of abusive sexual contact and 15 years on a charge of sexual abuse of a minor, but prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to a sentence between seven and 10 years.
U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said the case should serve as a reminder to parents that it's important to monitor children's use of cellphones and the Internet.
"Parents must be relentless about reading children's text messages and checking their social media accounts," Rosenstein said in a statement. "Keep your children's passwords, read all of their incoming and outgoing messages, and take immediate action if they send or receive inappropriate messages."
twitter.com/pwoodreporter