Grove Man Sentenced for Possessing and Producing Child Sexual Abuse Material

TULSA, Okla. – A Grove man was sentenced today for Possession of Child Pornography in Indian Country and Production of Child Pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill sentenced Dakota Austin Clark, 24, to 240 months imprisonment, followed by 15 years of supervised release. Upon his release, Clark will also be required to register as a sex offender.

In February 2023, Clark began communicating with a 14-year-old through social media. The investigation revealed that Clark coerced and enticed the minor child to produce sexually explicit photos. Law enforcement further discovered that Clark possessed hundreds of images that contained the sexual abuse of minor children.

Clark is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and will remain in custody pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. 

The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Grove Police Department are the investigative agencies. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Harris 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 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 Justice.gov/PSC.