Kansas City Man Sentenced to 60 Years for Child Pornography Offenses

KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Kansas City, Mo., man has been sentenced in federal court on charges related to receiving child pornography over the Internet.

Richard Calvin Harrison, 32, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, to 60 years in federal prison without parole.

On Aug. 12, 2009, Harrison pleaded guilty to publishing a notice offering child pornography, attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet, receiving child pornography over the Internet, and three counts of possessing child pornography.

Harrison admitted that he responded to an online advertisement for child pornography, posted by an undercover postal inspector, offering “models that will pose and make any kind of movie you want.” Between June 7 and June 29, 2004, the inspector exchanged a number of e-mails with Harrison about what type of movie Harrison wanted the undercover inspector to create and mail to him.

On July 2, 2004, agents from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service made a controlled delivery of a video tape to Harrison’s residence. Approximately 45 minutes later, agents executed a federal search warrant on the residence and recovered the controlled delivery video inside a VCR. Approximately 2,500 additional video tapes were also seized from the residence. Harrison admitted to owning 36 of the videos, all of which contained movies with child stars or children’s shows such as “Barney and Friends.” Agents recovered numerous CDs along with two computers from Harrison’s residence.

In his initial interview with the federal agents, Harrison admitted that he had sexually abused two juveniles. During the search, agents noted that a computer located in the living room was on and was running a screen saver of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct. During subsequent interviews, Harrison admitted to creating the screen saver.

Harrison stated that he chats with children on the Internet. Harrison also admitted downloading images and videos of child pornography from the Internet, primarily by using the file-sharing software Kazaa, which permits users to access the files other Kazaa users have saved on their computer. By keeping child pornography files in the Kazaa shared folder on his computer, Harrison made those files available for all other Kazaa users to download and access.

Two computers seized during the search were forensically examined and numerous images of child pornography were found in allocated space on the two computers. In addition, several thousand images of child pornography were found in the temporary Internet space. One computer contained 17 images of young children posing and four images of child pornography as well as 14 movies involving young children, four of which depicted child pornography. The second computer contained thousands of child pornography images in the temporary Internet space and 23 images of child pornography in active space of the hard drive. In addition, the Kazaa shared folder contained 32 images of child pornography and 48 videos of child pornography.

Harrison also admitted that in April 2005 he chatted with a New Hampshire undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old juvenile. During those conversations, Harrison discussed previous sexual encounters he had with underage children and discussed his desire to engage in sexual activity with the individual with whom he was chatting. Harrison also explained that he had requested a video tape of a man “messin with his kids and feds came in.”

As a result of those chats, officers obtained a second search warrant for Harrison’s residence. On June 14, 2005, officers executed the warrant and recovered numerous computers. During the search warrant execution, agents interviewed Harrison, who admitted that he continued to seek images of child pornography on the Internet. He also admitted that he continued to chat with young children on the Internet.

Harrison described one of the chats, reportedly with a young child in Kansas City, who agreed to meet Harrison and engage in sexual intercourse. Harrison explained that he was not able to meet the child because he did not have a driver’s license.

A computer seized from the residence contained a number of images of child pornography in the temporary Internet space. The CDs seized from Harrison’s residence contained numerous images of prepubescent children engaged in sporting events, i.e. swim meets, soccer games, etc. The CDs also contained nine images of child pornography.

This case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips. It was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with the assistance of task force officers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.