An Air Force Academy senior cadet, sworn to uphold the honor code and the ideals of his military institution, is now being investigated for setting up and participating in a group sex venture via the Internet, and posting the pornographic pictures online.

Video

See Hidden Camera Investigation Reaction From Washington To Story

Even though the sexual activity was off campus, he apparently ran the groups from his academy dorm room, 7NEWS Investigative reporter John Ferrugia said.

The site, "The Denver Horsemen," goes beyond the online fantasy world of pornography to reality, and actually arranges for group sex involving one women and a number of men. The material is so disturbing that 7NEWS can't show most of what is posted.

The man in the cyber shadows who makes it all possible has the online moniker S.B.

Woman in undercover video: You're the guy who created the whole thing?
SB:Yes, I am.
Woman: Where do you go to school?
SB: I am about to graduate.
Woman: The academy. Air Force Academy?
SB: Yeah. Shhhhh.

S.B. is a 23-year-old senior Air Force Academy cadet. His name is Sterling Barnes. 7NEWS Investigates contacted him online. He agreed to meet a couple he thought might be interested in participating in his group but were actually members of the 7NEWS staff.

Barnes is scheduled to graduate in just three weeks and will be a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force. That's why he seemed, at first, a bit nervous.

Barnes in undercover video: I don't tell anybody because I'd get kicked out.
Woman:You would?
Barnes: Yeah.
Woman: Why?
Barnes: Conduct unbecoming. You are doing something to discredit the academy and the Air Force and yourself, and blah, blah, blah.…

But Barnes knows it's not only an issue of honor. What he's doing could land him in jail.

Man in undercover video: If you just ran the group and didn't participate, you could do that, couldn't you?
Barnes: No. Not there.
Man: Why not?
Barnes: Because it's a government network. The computer landline that we are on -- we can't do that. Even though I do it. I don't really give a F***.

In fact, Air Force regulations provided to all cadets specifically forbid "storing, processing, displaying, sending or otherwise transmitting offensive or obscene language or material" which includes "pornography or other sexually explicit materials."

"It's tracking it back to the Department of Defense's network in the D.C. area," said 7NEWS investigative producer Kurt Silver.

Silver has been tracking Barnes for months through the cadet's e-mails to the porn site.

"And it shows you very clearly it came from USAFA E.D.U, which is the Air Force Academy. The cadet posted 194 e-mails, 180 of them we've tracked back to the Air Force Academy," said Silver.

And even with all his studies at the Academy, Barnes has been managing the Denver Horsemen site for two years.

"I started the group back in '01 and it got to like 3,000 people in four or five months," Barnes said in the undercover video.

And just this week, the site listed almost 9,000 members. Even so, Barnes claims only one other academy cadet knows about the Denver Horsemen. But he said there is an academy staff member who, while not part of his online group, is aware of his activity.

Sterling Barnes: She is not an officer, she's enlisted.
Man: Does she know that you know?
Sterling Barnes: Yeah, she knows about it.

"I find it improbable that other people around him wouldn't know, um, that he's doing this," said Jeanette LeBlanc.

LeBlanc has a Ph.D in management and psychology and was hired by the Air Force Academy in 1997 and 1998 as a consultant dealing with issues that included attitudes toward female cadets.

"We were dealing with issues ranging from inappropriate e-mails to peeping Toms in the bathrooms, all types of things. And a lot of those boiled down to issues of, about, respect and dignity for female cadets," Le Blanc said.

Given her experience, LeBlanc said this latest academy incident involving Internet porn contributes to a climate at the academy that she finds disturbing.

"Some people would say there is nothing illegal about consenting adults having any kind of sexual activity. Why shouldn't this guy be able to do this out of the academy? What's wrong with it? What's the problem?" Investigator John Ferrugia asked her.

"Well, there are so many problems. It goes against the human relations code, the honor code. You've got, you know, misappropriation of government property and all of those things. But it shows a blatant disregard for everything that the academy stands for because it's doing something that is a huge concern as it relates to all of these issues. To pornography, violence against women, rape, you know, all of these issues," LeBlanc said.

Barnes in undercover video: It was just getting insane. You have 30 guys coming in.
Man: 30 guys?
Barnes: Yeah
Man: And how many women?
Barnes: One.

7NEWS took the results of our investigation to Sen. Wayne Allard, whose immediate concern is national security.

"This guy would be a No. 1 security risk as far as I can tell. And from what I am seeing here, is very subject to blackmail," Allard said. "They will use sexual misconduct as a way to leverage a spy."

Man in undercover video: What are you going to do?
Barnes: I'm going to be a contracting officer, just negotiating contracts, writing contracts and stuff like that.

"He's going to be a contracting officer, based on who submits the best contract, not on the one who might be able to blackmail him in order to get the bid," Allard said.

"I do believe the vast majority of cadets and faculty, staff, and administration are of exemplary character and you know, really reflect well on the academy. But in terms of this type of event, it does say the problems are even larger than I even imagined. I mean he does represent -- he is one cadet, but this also makes me wonder what else is going on," LeBlanc said.

The Denver Horsemen wasn't Barnes only porn site. He had others, including an Ohio Horsemen site based in Dayton, which was soliciting new members. Dayton is where Barnes is scheduled to be stationed if he graduates.