Okay, we kinda dropped the ball on this one (and were properly chided for doing so at a party we just returned from). We asked you for interesting information about Brian J. Doyle, the Department of Homeland Security official who was arrested on charges of using a computer to seduce a child. You sent us a number of juicy tips, which we meant to publish, but then, well, mostly forgot to publish (except for this post). Perhaps we were overly cautious, handling the story with kid gloves given the lurid nature of the allegations.
The story has run its course for the most part, and now that Brian Doyle is no longer a DHS official -- he resigned last Friday, after initially being placed on administrative leave -- it may lie beyond the purview of this blog. The governmental or political angle is dissipating; it is becoming a run-of-the-mill story about a middle-aged man trying to pick up an underaged girl over the internet
But since a number of you went to the trouble to share tidbits of gossip and information with us -- including some of you who know Brian Doyle personally -- we pass them along after the jump, for what they might be worth.
Here, in no particular order, are some of the more interesting comments we received about Brian Doyle:
From a former colleague of Doyle, a reader sympathetic towards him:
[S]ometimes honest, durable, kind souls get drawn away from their better selves. When someone does something like this they're either evil or they're lost and sick. Brian is the latter.
And from a decidedly less sympathetic correspondent:
This guy is also the same DHS mouthpiece who came to the rescue of the air marshalls who murdered Rigoberto Alpizar in Dec of 2005 in a jetway at Miami International Airport. I guess Doyle's karma is catching up with him.
This next comment, from a family friend, is especially interesting:
I've known Brian Doyle for a very, very long time (family connection), and I can honestly say that this came as a total shock and a surprise to those who know him. I've actually had numerous opportunities to see him interact with teenage girls in his extended family (he does not have children of his own, contrary to reports) and he never exhibited anything in the slightest bit unusual or salacious in his behavior towards them -- a couple minutes of the standard "And how's school going?" conversation, then he'd go back to talking with adults. I have a highly developed creepiness detector, and he just never set it off. It's baffling.He's not the kind of guy who can't attract adult women, either -- he's a funny guy, dresses well, has a nice house. He's pretty much a normal, middle-aged, D.C. workaholic -- if you knew him, you would NEVER expect this. I don't know how to explain it.
Here is some information from a reader who ran a Lexis/Nexis search:
Only Brian Doyle in Silver Spring co-owns a house with a Margaret Conley. No mention of wife. Isn't living together a sin? Who is she? What does she think?
We assume that Margaret Conley is the woman who appeared with Doyle in court, with whom he has been in a 15-year relationship.
And here's some information about Doyle's pre-DHS employment:
Doyle used to be the office manager for the DC bureau of Time. He got caught downloading "porn" on someone else's computer at work. He was not fired, however, as he had been there long enough to retire, so they let him do that. Nobody seems to know what kind of porn it was, but I'd like to think that if he was caught downloading child porn at such a magazine, they would be reported to some sort of "authority." Anyway, everyone there was surprised when he ended up at DHS.
(This info is confirmed by actual reporting -- shortly after we received this email, it was reported in the Post.)
