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

JUNE 12, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

VERSAILLES MAN INDICTED FOR PRODUCING

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

            JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Versailles, Mo., man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for producing child pornography.

            Timothy Lee Senkowski, Sr., 46, of Versailles, was charged in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Jefferson City on Thursday, June 11, 2009. The superseding indictment replaces an indictment that was filed against Priscilla Ramirez Flores, 37, of Clarksburg, Mo., on March 2, 2009, by adding Senkowski as a co-defendant.

            The federal indictment alleges that, from as early as November 2004 to May 2005, Flores and Senkowski permitted a minor in their custody to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography.

            Whitworth cautioned that the charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge 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 State Technical Assistance Team, the Missouri Attorney General’s High technology and Computer Crime Unit, the Moniteau County, Mo., Prosecutor’s Office, the California, Mo., Police Department, the Moniteau County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, and the Missouri Division of Family Services.

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

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