Former High School Teacher Pleads Guilty to Possessing Child Porn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a former Independence, Mo., high school teacher pleaded guilty in federal court today to possessing child pornography.

Jason R. Pink, 44, of Independence, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to a federal information that charges him with possessing child pornography in 2014.

At the time of the offense, Pink was employed as a teacher at Fort Osage High School. He was identified as a customer during an investigation into a movie production company located outside the United States that operated a Web site advertising child pornography DVDs and streaming videos for sale. Law enforcement officers seized hundreds of DVDs from the business and found information in the company’s records that Pink had purchased child pornography on multiple occasions.

U.S. Postal Inspectors executed a search warrant at Pink’s residence and located several child pornography DVDs that he had purchased from the company. Inspectors also located a 16-gigabyte thumb drive inserted into a computer tower that included thousands of “naturist” or “nudist” type images that are not necessarily child pornography but which include nude minors from the age of approximately 12 to 18 years. Also included in this thumb drive were approximately 30 images of child pornography.

Under federal statutes, Pink is subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. 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 David Luna. It was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."