NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

BETH PHILLIPS

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

www.usdoj.gov../index.html

MARCH 4, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

SUGAR CREEK MAN INDICTED FOR CHILD PORN

            KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Sugar Creek, Mo., man has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to child pornography.

            Martin A. Cordry, 47, of Sugar Creek, was charged in a three-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on Wednesday, March 3, 2010. That indictment was unsealed and made public today following Cordry’s initial court appearance. Cordry remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Monday, March 8, 2010.

            The federal indictment charges Cordry with attempting to distribute child pornography over the Internet, attempting to receive child pornography over the Internet and possessing child pornography.

            According to the government’s motion for detention, Independence police officers executed a search warrant at Cordry’s residence on Dec. 11, 2008. Cordry told officers that he had approximately 50 disks with child pornography on them underneath his nightstand and that he downloaded child pornography approximately once a week.

            When Cordry was arrested on Wednesday, March 3, 2010, the government’s motion says, he told officers that he had obtained a new computer during the investigation and had used a file-sharing program to obtain additional child pornography. Investigators discovered more than 1,000 cartoon images of sexual assaults of children (including children in bondage) on an external hard drive, as well as 15 child pornography videos on Cordry’s computer.

            Phillips 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 Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department.

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

http://www.justice.gov../index.html