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.justice.gov/index.html

MAY 12, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

COLLEGE STUDENT INDICTED FOR ATTEMPTING

TO PRODUCE CHILD PORN

            SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Joplin, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today for sexually exploiting three minors in an attempt to produce child pornography.

            Harry Sneed, 19, of St. Louis, Mo., a student at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, was charged in a five-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield.

            Today’s indictment charges Sneed in each of three separate counts with attempting to use a minor (identified as Jane Doe #1, Jane Doe #2 and Jane Doe #3) to produce child pornography between Jan. 24 and March 17, 2010.

            The federal indictment also alleges that Sneed received and distributed child pornography over the Internet between April 1, 2009, and March 17, 2010, and that he was in possession of child pornography during that time.

            The indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require Sneed to forfeit to the government any property used to commit the alleged offenses, including a laptop computer, an Olympus D380 digital camera and five USB flash drives.

            This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the Joplin, Mo., Police Department, the St. Louis County, Mo., Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

            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.

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.

****************

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