Sex offender posing as college soccer recruiter pleads guilty in North Texas porn case

A registered sex offender who posed as a girls’ soccer college recruiter in North Texas has pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography, federal officials said Friday.

Michael Ansley Twing, who went by the name “Michael Krogen,” entered his plea Wednesday on a federal charge of receipt of child pornography before Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton.

Twing, 43, of Fort Worth, was charged via criminal complaint on May 18.

He faces up to 40 years in federal prison. His sentencing has been set for Oct. 21 before U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor in Fort Worth.

According to federal court documents, Twing — who was already a registered sex offender based on a previous offense in the Amarillo, Texas area — acquired sexually explicit images of underage girls on his laptop. The files were downloaded via eMule, a file-sharing program similar to BitTorrent.

At a detention hearing, federal prosecutors introduced evidence showing that Twing had been posing as a recruiter for a local university under the name “Michael Krogen.”

Federal officials, who did not identify the university, said in a news release that there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the university, which is cooperating fully with the investigation.

In his bedroom, agents recovered a note on university letterhead in which Twing, writing under his alias, claimed to be a recruiter. They also found a roster of high school soccer players and identified at least one text in which Twing asked a coach for contact info for a student.

Authorities asked residents that if anyone was aware of a juvenile who may have had inappropriate contact with Twing, who also went by “Michael Krogen” or “Christopher Michael Crogen,” at a soccer tournament or elsewhere to please contact Crimestoppers at 817-469-8477 or www.469TIPS.com

Federal officials described Twing as about 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds with dark blond hair, blue eyes and glasses.

The U.S. Secret Service’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Hurst Special Investigations Unit, the Fort Worth Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children and Sex Offender Investigations Units, the Grand Prairie Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.