Former mayor accused of exploiting Filipino boys ordered to stay in jail
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Dan Morse
2025-05-12 01:59:31GMT
Town Hall in University Park, Maryland. (Dan Morse/The Washington Post)
In the fall of 2022, a mayor in suburban Maryland wrote out his prep and packing list for a trip to the Philippines. Much was standard: renew passport, reserve hotel, order sunglasses. And part of it was not: bondage gear, pantyhose and tiny underwear sized for children.
The details, as alleged in court Friday by federal prosecutors, are central to new accusations against Joel Biermann, 46, who has been locked up since his arrest on child pornography charges seven months ago. The charges stunned the citizens of University Park, a town of about 2,500 residents just outside Washington, where Biermann served as mayor from 2022 until last year and had a top campaign priority of “protecting our children.”
But behind the scenes, prosecutors assert, Biermann not only ordered photographs of young Filipino boys in specific sexualized poses, but he also appears to have traveled to the country to meet them. “There is evidence to support that Biermann eventually achieved his ultimate goal: traveling to the Philippines to sexually abuse his victims himself,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan McKoy wrote in court filings.
Biermann has pleaded not guilty in the case and denied all allegations against him.
Friday’s hearing addressed whether he should continue to be held pending trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ajmel A. Quereshi ordered Biermann to remain jailed, describing the charges filed so far as “extremely serious offenses.”
Biermann’s attorney, Peter Fayne, had argued that his client could safely return to his University Park home and abide by any restrictions of not going online. Fayne stressed all of the actual charges Biermann faces relate to pornography.
“My client is not charged with traveling outside of the country,” Fayne said. “He’s not charged with any allegations of committing physical harm to anybody. He’s not charged with having any in-person contact with minors.”
Biermann faces two counts of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. If convicted on all charges, he could face decades in prison, prosecutors said in court filings.
FBI agents built their case against Biermann after reviewing his accounts on Facebook, Yahoo and Google last year, leading them to raid his University Park home on Oct. 28 and seize electronic devices, according to court records.
A park in University Park. (Dan Morse/The Washington Post)
Prosecutors now allege that Biermann knew his victims were impoverished boys often living on the streets in the Philippines and may have also obtained pornographic photos of boys who lived in Maryland and Washington. Court records filed earlier asserted that the search of a hard drive in Biermann’s bedroom yielded “approximately 45,000 suspected child pornography files.”
Fayne did not address the charges in detail in court. But he described Biermann’s accomplishments in life, his history of public service and how the deep ties he held locally underscored his low risk of fleeing the area.
Biermann grew up in Wisconsin, where he played football in high school and served as vice president of his class, Fayne said. At the University of Wisconsin, he enrolled in ROTC as he earned a political science degree. He served in the U.S. Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, which sent him on deployments to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Fayne, Biermann’s campaign site and information in University Park government documents.
On the civilian side, Biermann has worked as a legislative aide in the Wisconsin State Assembly, earned an MBA, held secret clearances and worked as a business consultant, according to Fayne and Biermann’s campaign site.
He was elected in 2020 to the town council of University Park and ran unopposed for mayor two years later. “I look forward to the next two years and the exciting things to come!” Biermann wrote in his inaugural column as mayor in the town’s monthly newsletter.
Biermann was initially arrested in October by police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, who filed state charges in that jurisdiction.
“It was shocking to everyone I know,” Roland Stephen, 67, said Sunday while taking a break from his walk though a town park.
Stephen knew Biermann from serving on the town council with him from 2020 to 2022 and said that Biermann seemed to take his civic responsibility seriously. “He was eager to join the council. He wanted to be mayor,” Stephen said.
In general, Stephen said, the residents of University Park are both friendly and respectful of other people’s business. “I guess sometimes these things can be hiding in plain sight,” he said.
The counts against Biermann in Prince George’s County were recently dropped, Fayne said, as Biermann was as he was indicted this month in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the case is now proceeding.
The current mayor of University Park, Laurie Morrissey, and Town Administrator Debi Sandlin declined to comment on the new developments in the case. They referred to a brief statement the town released in October confirming Biermann’s service dates with University Park. “He no longer has an official position with the town,” the statement said. “He is a private citizen, and the town … cannot comment on his activities.”
Biermann’s sister, Jennifer Biermann, could not be reached for comment. In a text exchange in October from Wisconsin, she said she had not spoken with her brother in years. “I’m shocked,” she said of his arrest. “I’m heartbroken.”
Prosecutors allege that Biermann purchased child pornography made in the Philippines going back to at least 2012, according to court records. And all that time, prosecutors said, he knew how impoverished the children were who were caught up in it. As one of his adult contacts in the Philippines said in an message to him, the kids were “sleeping on the streets, and not knowing [where they] will get their next meal from.”
Biermann targeted them, according to prosecutors, because “he knew he’d be more likely to get away with it.”
He sent money transfers to fund weekly “sets” of photographs as he communicated with adults there about what he was seeing, according to court filings. “Wish he was younger,” he emailed, adding at one point that he preferred images of children ages 8 to 10.
Biermann eventually asked if he could “commission a photo set,” was told yes, and allegedly began sending instructions for how the boys should pose. “It would be cool if someone wrote something cute on his belly above his groin ‘Joel’s boy’ or something like that,” Biermann wrote in an email, according to court papers filed by McKoy and federal trial attorney Gwendelynn Bills.
He later asked if a boy could pose nude holding a piece of paper that said “I love Joel,” according to the court filings.
There were clear indications, McKoy alleged in court filings and at Friday’s hearing, that Biermann traveled to the Philippines at least twice — in 2019 and 2022 — and met boys in person. During that second trip, McKoy alleged, Biermann sent Facebook messages after he landed that stated how a boy — believed to be 12 to 16 years old — could come to meet him. Some two hours later, prosecutors allege, Biermann wrote how the child was heading home. “I had fun [but] he wants to be with his mother tonight, which is fine,” Biermann wrote, according to prosecutors.
McKoy said any effort to bring charges related to Biermann’s alleged conduct in the Philippines is a challenge given the conditions of many children there. “Although the FBI and the Philippines law enforcement agencies have been working very hard to identify Mr. Biermann’s victims,” McKoy said in court, “it’s hard to track down children in a foreign country who also don’t have stable housing.”
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Dan Morse
2025-05-12 01:59:31GMT
Town Hall in University Park, Maryland. (Dan Morse/The Washington Post)
In the fall of 2022, a mayor in suburban Maryland wrote out his prep and packing list for a trip to the Philippines. Much was standard: renew passport, reserve hotel, order sunglasses. And part of it was not: bondage gear, pantyhose and tiny underwear sized for children.
The details, as alleged in court Friday by federal prosecutors, are central to new accusations against Joel Biermann, 46, who has been locked up since his arrest on child pornography charges seven months ago. The charges stunned the citizens of University Park, a town of about 2,500 residents just outside Washington, where Biermann served as mayor from 2022 until last year and had a top campaign priority of “protecting our children.”
But behind the scenes, prosecutors assert, Biermann not only ordered photographs of young Filipino boys in specific sexualized poses, but he also appears to have traveled to the country to meet them. “There is evidence to support that Biermann eventually achieved his ultimate goal: traveling to the Philippines to sexually abuse his victims himself,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan McKoy wrote in court filings.
Biermann has pleaded not guilty in the case and denied all allegations against him.
Friday’s hearing addressed whether he should continue to be held pending trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ajmel A. Quereshi ordered Biermann to remain jailed, describing the charges filed so far as “extremely serious offenses.”
Biermann’s attorney, Peter Fayne, had argued that his client could safely return to his University Park home and abide by any restrictions of not going online. Fayne stressed all of the actual charges Biermann faces relate to pornography.
“My client is not charged with traveling outside of the country,” Fayne said. “He’s not charged with any allegations of committing physical harm to anybody. He’s not charged with having any in-person contact with minors.”
Biermann faces two counts of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. If convicted on all charges, he could face decades in prison, prosecutors said in court filings.
FBI agents built their case against Biermann after reviewing his accounts on Facebook, Yahoo and Google last year, leading them to raid his University Park home on Oct. 28 and seize electronic devices, according to court records.
A park in University Park. (Dan Morse/The Washington Post)
Prosecutors now allege that Biermann knew his victims were impoverished boys often living on the streets in the Philippines and may have also obtained pornographic photos of boys who lived in Maryland and Washington. Court records filed earlier asserted that the search of a hard drive in Biermann’s bedroom yielded “approximately 45,000 suspected child pornography files.”
Fayne did not address the charges in detail in court. But he described Biermann’s accomplishments in life, his history of public service and how the deep ties he held locally underscored his low risk of fleeing the area.
Biermann grew up in Wisconsin, where he played football in high school and served as vice president of his class, Fayne said. At the University of Wisconsin, he enrolled in ROTC as he earned a political science degree. He served in the U.S. Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, which sent him on deployments to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Fayne, Biermann’s campaign site and information in University Park government documents.
On the civilian side, Biermann has worked as a legislative aide in the Wisconsin State Assembly, earned an MBA, held secret clearances and worked as a business consultant, according to Fayne and Biermann’s campaign site.
He was elected in 2020 to the town council of University Park and ran unopposed for mayor two years later. “I look forward to the next two years and the exciting things to come!” Biermann wrote in his inaugural column as mayor in the town’s monthly newsletter.
Biermann was initially arrested in October by police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, who filed state charges in that jurisdiction.
“It was shocking to everyone I know,” Roland Stephen, 67, said Sunday while taking a break from his walk though a town park.
Stephen knew Biermann from serving on the town council with him from 2020 to 2022 and said that Biermann seemed to take his civic responsibility seriously. “He was eager to join the council. He wanted to be mayor,” Stephen said.
In general, Stephen said, the residents of University Park are both friendly and respectful of other people’s business. “I guess sometimes these things can be hiding in plain sight,” he said.
The counts against Biermann in Prince George’s County were recently dropped, Fayne said, as Biermann was as he was indicted this month in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the case is now proceeding.
The current mayor of University Park, Laurie Morrissey, and Town Administrator Debi Sandlin declined to comment on the new developments in the case. They referred to a brief statement the town released in October confirming Biermann’s service dates with University Park. “He no longer has an official position with the town,” the statement said. “He is a private citizen, and the town … cannot comment on his activities.”
Biermann’s sister, Jennifer Biermann, could not be reached for comment. In a text exchange in October from Wisconsin, she said she had not spoken with her brother in years. “I’m shocked,” she said of his arrest. “I’m heartbroken.”
Prosecutors allege that Biermann purchased child pornography made in the Philippines going back to at least 2012, according to court records. And all that time, prosecutors said, he knew how impoverished the children were who were caught up in it. As one of his adult contacts in the Philippines said in an message to him, the kids were “sleeping on the streets, and not knowing [where they] will get their next meal from.”
Biermann targeted them, according to prosecutors, because “he knew he’d be more likely to get away with it.”
He sent money transfers to fund weekly “sets” of photographs as he communicated with adults there about what he was seeing, according to court filings. “Wish he was younger,” he emailed, adding at one point that he preferred images of children ages 8 to 10.
Biermann eventually asked if he could “commission a photo set,” was told yes, and allegedly began sending instructions for how the boys should pose. “It would be cool if someone wrote something cute on his belly above his groin ‘Joel’s boy’ or something like that,” Biermann wrote in an email, according to court papers filed by McKoy and federal trial attorney Gwendelynn Bills.
He later asked if a boy could pose nude holding a piece of paper that said “I love Joel,” according to the court filings.
There were clear indications, McKoy alleged in court filings and at Friday’s hearing, that Biermann traveled to the Philippines at least twice — in 2019 and 2022 — and met boys in person. During that second trip, McKoy alleged, Biermann sent Facebook messages after he landed that stated how a boy — believed to be 12 to 16 years old — could come to meet him. Some two hours later, prosecutors allege, Biermann wrote how the child was heading home. “I had fun [but] he wants to be with his mother tonight, which is fine,” Biermann wrote, according to prosecutors.
McKoy said any effort to bring charges related to Biermann’s alleged conduct in the Philippines is a challenge given the conditions of many children there. “Although the FBI and the Philippines law enforcement agencies have been working very hard to identify Mr. Biermann’s victims,” McKoy said in court, “it’s hard to track down children in a foreign country who also don’t have stable housing.”
