Independence man pleads guilty to child porn
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Independence, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to possessing child pornography.
Chance A. Palmer, 23, of Independence, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ortrie D. Smith to a federal information that charges him with possessing child pornography.
Palmer admitted that he was using peer-to-peer file-sharing software to download child pornography over the Internet, as well as to make images of child pornography available to others from his computer, in October 2008. Palmer told law enforcement officers that he had been downloading child pornography from the Internet for nine years. Investigators conducted a forensic examination of Palmer’s computer and found six videos and 136 images of child pornography, including images of a minor under the age of 12 and images of sadistic or masochistic conduct.
By pleading guilty today, Palmer also agreed to forfeit his laptop computer, which was used to commit the offense, to the government.
Under federal statutes, Palmer is subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Valenti. 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.
