Harry Marvelle Peless
Introduction
Harry Marvelle Peless, 51, of Newport, Michigan, worked as a marine border protection agent at the Gibraltar, Michigan CBP station — and spent months in 2024 exchanging near-daily sexual messages with someone he believed was a teenage girl, an undercover New Jersey police officer, while receiving child sexual abuse material over the internet and logging into his chat account from the federal station where he worked. On 6 October 2026 he was sentenced to five years in federal prison for receiving child pornography.
Background Information
Law enforcement began investigating Peless after he sent sexual messages to an undercover officer in New Jersey who was posing as a minor. He started communicating with the undercover account in September 2024, and his contacts with the nominal teen girl became a near daily occurrence. At the time of the offense he was employed as a marine border protection agent at the Gibraltar, Michigan station of Customs and Border Protection. Evidence recovered during the investigation showed Peless had received child pornography over the internet, and that he was logged into the chat account he used to communicate with the undercover officer while at the Gibraltar station — the detail that tied his federal employment directly to the offending. Following the filing of charges, CBP placed him on unpaid administrative leave.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Convicted and sentenced. Peless pleaded guilty in February 2026 to one count of receipt of child pornography, and on 6 October 2026 was sentenced to 60 months in prison, eight years of supervised release, and $25,000 in fines.
The sentencing followed that February 2026 plea, entered in the Eastern District of Michigan. In addition to the custodial term, Peless will spend eight years on supervised release after leaving custody and was ordered to pay fines totaling $25,000. He faces additional criminal charges in New Jersey for attempting to entice a minor — the other side of the same undercover exchange that exposed him.
Public Reaction and Consequences
“A federal badge carries an expectation of trust and integrity. This defendant’s conduct betrayed both,” said Jennifer Runyan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, adding that his position “did not place him above the law” and that “today’s sentence reflects that accountability.” Runyan credited the FBI Ann Arbor Resident Agency, CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and the Crawford Police Department in New Jersey, saying their “coordination and persistence were critical in holding this offender accountable and protecting children from further exploitation.” The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eaton Brown.
Current Status
Peless is serving his five-year sentence, with eight years of supervised release to follow and the $25,000 fine imposed. He remains under pending criminal charges in New Jersey for attempting to entice a minor. His CBP employment ended through the unpaid administrative leave that followed his charges, and the felony conviction forecloses any return to a federal law-enforcement position.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A career federal border agent’s record now ends in a child-pornography conviction, a prison term, and a second prosecution pending in another state. The case’s distinguishing detail — conducting the sexualized chat with someone he believed was a child from inside the CBP station itself — became the investigators’ centerpiece evidence, and the multi-agency response spanning two states underscores that the badge offered him no shelter from prosecution. The sentencing came roughly a year and a half after the September 2024 exchanges began, a pace that reflected both the undercover record and the cooperation among the FBI, CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, DHS OIG, and the New Jersey police department that had initiated the contact.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan, “Former Customs and Border Protection Agent Sentenced to 60 Months in Prison for Receiving Child Pornography” — source