October 23, 2014

Kansas City Man Charged with Producing Child Pornography

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was charged in federal court today with producing child pornography after taking videos and photos of a teenager who responded to his online advertisement for modeling.

Marcus S. Clarke, 42, of Kansas City, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Kansas City, Mo., with producing child pornography.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s criminal complaint, a 15-year-old girl, identified in court documents as MV (“minor victim”), had been sending and receiving text messages on a borrowed cell phone. The cell phone’s owner notified a Prairie Village, Kan., police detective when she noticed a text conversation about a modeling photo shoot.

MV told law enforcement officers that she responded to a Craigslist advertisement for models for a photo shoot. Clarke allegedly picked her up at a park in Prairie Village on Oct. 3, 2014, and drove her to his apartment in the Northland. When they arrived at the apartment, the affidavit says, Clarke put a flash drive in his television to display photos of nude females to MV. MV described the images to law enforcement officers as “disturbing” because the women were nude and engaged in sexual activity.

Clarke allegedly took both nude and non-nude photos and videos of MV using a digital camera and digital recorder. During one of the video recordings, Clarke allegedly engaged in sexually explicit conduct with MV. According to the affidavit, investigators learned that Clarke had been advertising online for lingerie and nude modeling as far back as September 2012.

An FBI agent used the same cell phone that MV had used to contact Clarke, the affidavit says. Several text messages were exchanged in which Clarke allegedly made arrangements to meet MV again for another photo shoot. When Clarke arrived at the Prairie Village park to meet MV at about 8:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, he was placed under arrest.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Clarke’s residence and seized computers and computer storage devices that contained sexually explicit videos of MV.

Dickinson cautioned that the charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Connelly. It was investigated by the FBI and the Prairie Village, Kan., Police Department.

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.”