Mississippi County Sheriff Sentenced to 10 months for Fraud and Identity Theft

St. Louis, MO – Cory Hutcheson, 35, of East Prairie, MO, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in St. Louis for illegally monitoring the location of other law enforcement officers and civilians without a warrant by entering mobile telephone numbers into a law enforcement database. Hutcheson received a sentence of 10 months—6 months to be served in the Bureau of Prisons and 4 months home confinement. In addition to the sentence imposed, Hutcheson was required to resign as Sheriff of Mississippi County on November 20, 2018.

Numerous victims appeared at Hutcheson’s sentencing including Missouri State Highway Patrol Troopers whose location was tracked by Hutcheson. For a three year period, including after being elected Sheriff of Mississippi County, Hutcheson uploaded false and fraudulent documents to a law enforcement database to obtain the location of over 200 mobile phone users.  Hutcheson submitted thousands of requests and obtained the location data of hundreds individual phone subscribers without valid legal authorization, and without the consent or knowledge of the targeted individual. The location information request was submitted using wire communications transmitted in interstate commerce.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Missouri State Highway Patrol and was prosecuted in cooperation with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.  Assistant United States Attorneys Gwen Carroll and Lindsay McClure-Hartman handled the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.