Jefferson City Man Indicted for Attempted Sex Trafficking of a Child
Case Part of Project Safe Childhood

JEFFERSON CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Jefferson City, Missouri man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for the attempted sex trafficking of a child and for the distribution and possession of child pornography.

Jeremy Ryan Bappert, 29, of Jefferson City, was charged in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday, November 7, 2013.

The federal indictment alleges that Bappert attempted to recruit a child under the age of 14 to engage in prostitution between July 2 and July 25, 2013.

Bappert is also charged with one count of distributing child pornography over the Internet and one count of possessing child pornography.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges 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 Jim Lynn. It was investigated by the FBI; the Boone County, Missouri Sheriff’s Department; and the Columbia, Missouri Police Department.

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 http://www.justice.gov/usao/briefing_room/cc/.