NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

MATT J. WHITWORTH

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

JULY 30, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

KANSAS MAN SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS

FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

CLANDESTINE VIDEOS ALSO FOUND AT RESIDENCE

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Kan., man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving child pornography over the Internet.

James E. Rincon, 41, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple this afternoon to 15 years in federal prison without parole.

Rincon operated a catering and concessions business, which included hot dog stands, in the Kansas City metropolitan area at the time he was engaged in the criminal activity. In early November 2005 Rincon took his computer to Tech Guys in Overland Park, Kan., for repair. While repairing Rincon’s computer, a service technician found images of child pornography on the computer’s hard drive and contacted law enforcement.

On Feb. 24, 2009, Rincon pleaded guilty to using a computer to search the Internet and download images and videos of child pornography. A forensic examination of Rincon’s hard drive recovered approximately 185 images of child pornography in the “My Pictures” folder.

While executing a search warrant at Rincon’s residence, investigators found additional child pornography on another computer belonging to Rincon, along with numerous videotapes, child erotica materials, and two video cameras modified with black electrical tape for the purpose of conducting clandestine videotaping.

The videotapes recovered from Rincon’s home depicted footage of Rincon engaging in clandestine videotaping over approximately the last 15 years in or around the Kansas City metropolitan area. Those videos include:

• Rincon fondling and having sex with a woman who appears to be unconscious;

• clandestine videos of two minor girls changing clothes;

• video of Rincon receiving sexual services from a prostitute, while Rincon described his desire to have sexual contact with two minor girls;

• a video that depicted Rincon trying to fondle a girl in a school restroom until she fought him off and ran away;

• clandestine videos shot from outside the bedroom window of a girl changing clothes and putting on a high school cheerleading outfit;

• videos of images of child pornography captured from a computer screen;

• videos of Rincon masturbating while he was driving a car and chasing school buses full of children who could see him masturbating;

• a video of young girls at a fund-raising car wash for a cheerleading competition;

• multiple clandestine videos of adult women changing clothes and in the nude inside their homes; and

• clandestine videos of women and minor girls in public places, including the downtown and Westport areas of Kansas City, Mo.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Hiller. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and the FBI Cybercrimes Task Force.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, is available on-line at