June 4, 2014

Former Kansas City Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Kansas City, Missouri resident pleaded guilty in federal court today to charges related to producing child pornography.

Paul Leslie Kannarr, 59, formerly of Kansas City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to all 10 counts of a May 21, 2013 federal indictment.

By pleading guilty today, Kannarr admitted that he used a minor, identified as “Jane Doe,” to produce child pornography on six separate occasions between December 19, 1999 and September 23, 2000.

Kannarr also pleaded guilty to two counts of posting a notice online that offers to display or distribute child pornography, one count of transporting child pornography over the Internet, and one count of possessing child pornography.

Under federal statutes, Kannarr is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole on each of the six production counts and the two advertising counts, up to a sentence of 180 years in federal prison without parole. 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 Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force.

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.”

This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available online at http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/index.html.