October 28, 2014

Kansas City Man Admits Possessing Thousands of Images of Child Pornography in Guilty Plea

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to having thousands of images of child pornography on his computer.

Duane E. Elliott, 57, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to two counts of receiving child pornography over the Internet.

According to today’s plea agreement, a detective with the Independence, Mo., Police Department identified Elliott’s computer as sharing child pornography over the Internet. Elliott used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to make approximately 20 videos of child pornography available for distribution over the Internet on multiple occasions.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Elliott’s residence and seized multiple computers and electronic storage media, which contained thousands of images of child pornography. Investigators found more than 1,000 videos and more than 2,500 images of child pornography. Some of the videos depicted sexually explicit conduct with children under the age of 12, and some depicted children in bondage or subjected to other sadistic or violent sexual abuse.

Under federal statutes, Elliott is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 40 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department and the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”