By Rod Leveque
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Copyright 2007 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
CHINO HILLS, Calif. — The FBI is investigating whether a Los Angeles County firefighter in jail in Michigan on charges he tried to have sex with a 5-year-old girl may have also molested a child here.
Brian Lee Flaherty, of Chino Hills, is facing federal charges in Detroit alleging he crossed state lines to induce a child to have sex and trafficked child pornography.
He was arrested during an undercover sting operation last month after he flew from Los Angeles to Detroit allegedly to meet the child.
Federal agents said they found evidence during that investigation suggesting Flaherty, 37, may have had sexual contact in Southern California with the infant child of a friend.
An FBI spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that agents are pursuing those leads, though she declined to elaborate.
“I’m not going to comment beyond that because it is an ongoing investigation,” spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
Flaherty has worked for the Los Angeles County Fire Department for six years. He was most recently assigned to Station 7 in West Hollywood. He is now on paid leave pending an investigation into his case.
According to court records, Flaherty responded in January to an Internet posting from an undercover detective in Michigan posing as a single mother interested in finding a man to have sex with her two young children.
They say he corresponded with the undercover officer for more than a month before he finally flew to Detroit on Feb. 23 to meet the “mother” and have sex with her 5-year-old daughter.
Detectives arrested him at the airport.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in the case, Flaherty sent the undercover detective some 25 pornographic photos and two videos of children during the six weeks they corresponded.
Some of the images appeared to be of children as young as 1 year old, according to the affidavit.
Investigators say Flaherty told the detective an infant depicted in some of the sexually graphic photos is a child he occasionally baby-sits for a friend.
The affidavit does not provide further details.
Flaherty remains in jail in Michigan without bail.