Former Greene County Sheriff's Deputy Pleads Guilty to Child Porn

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a former Greene County, Mo., Deputy Sheriff has pleaded guilty in federal court to receiving and distributing child pornography.

Juan T. Jones, 28, of Springfield, Mo., pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush on Monday, April 18, 2016, to the charge contained in a Jan. 19, 2016, federal indictment. Jones was a Greene County Deputy Sheriff at the time of the offense.

An officer with the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force Officer opened the investigation on Sept. 25, 2015, after a CyberTip from Dropbox to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Dropbox had discovered many video and image files that contained child pornography, which had been uploaded by Jones.

Investigators executed a search warrant at Jones’s residence on Jan. 6, 2016. While the warrant was being executed, they contacted Jones at his place of employment, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department. Jones admitted to investigators that he had looked at child pornography for as long as 10 years. Jones also admitted that he had exchanged child pornography images on Tumblr. Investigators discovered numerous images of child pornography on Jones’s cell phone.

Under federal statutes, Jones is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 20 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. 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 Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force and the FBI.