St. Louis County Sex Offender Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Wednesday sentenced a sex offender who possessed child sexual abuse material and distributed it to others to 12 years in prison.

Steven Martin Reich, 56, of St. Louis County, Missouri, will also be placed on supervised release for life after his release from prison.

Reich pleaded guilty in April to one count of possession of child pornography and one count of attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor.

The investigation began with a CyberTipline Report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after Reich uploaded an image of child exploitation material to the social media application Kik. CSAM was found on his phone as well as chats with someone who said they were a sixth grader named “Tasha.” Reich discussed his interest in engaging in sexual contact with Tasha and requested nude images of her. Reich believed he was communicating with a juvenile, but Homeland Security Investigations special agents determined that Tasha may be an adult male living in Utah. Investigators also located evidence that Reich distributed CSAM to people with whom he’d been communicating on social media application Wickr, and a search history indicating Reich sought out CSAM.  

Reich was placed on the sex offender list after pleading guilty to child molestation in the first degree in St. Louis Circuit Court in 1999.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.justice.gov/psc.