OWINGS MILLS, Md. — A former trooper with Maryland State Police and convicted sex offender has once again been busted for child pornography.
Bruce Allen Tucker, 57, was arrested and charged October 30, after state police raided his home in Owings Mills, Maryland.
Detectives began their investigation into Tucker on October 1, after Yahoo sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in August about possible child porn images found in one of their users' accounts.
Maryland State Police investigators were able to link the email address back to Tucker and a security consulting business he owned and ran out of his home.
Charging documents show police seized a gun and several electronic devices from Tucker's home, including an iPhone, which had the pictures reported by Yahoo.
The lead investigator in the case knew Tucker was already a registered sex offender in Maryland, having worked on a June 2011 case where Tucker was convicted of possessing child porn in Baltimore County.
At the time of the first investigation, Tucker was an active duty trooper with the Maryland State Police. He received a five-year jail sentence with all but 18 months suspended.
According to court documents, Tucker still receives $2,100 a month from a Maryland State Police pension.
During the raid, the lead detective recorded an interview with Tucker in his bedroom.
The detective wrote in charging papers that Tucker admitted to looking at child pornography again, around four years after his first conviction.
He told the detective he preferred watching children 9 to 13 years old and had gone to counseling to deal with his struggle with child porn, but had stopped going because he felt it was no longer needed.
Tucker faces two counts of promoting/distributing child porn, a single count of possessing child pornography and a count of possessing an illegal firearm while registered as a sex offender.
If convicted on all four charges, he could serve a maximum of 30 years behind bars.
This story was originally published on WMAR.
