Former Police Officer Sentenced to 20 years for Child Sexual Exploitation

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A former Grain Valley, Mo., police officer was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge D. Gregory Kays to 20 years in the Bureau of Prisons to be followed by supervised release for Life.

August Price Gildehaus, 30, of Blue Springs, Mo., previously pleaded guilty to one count of enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity and one count of producing child pornography.

Gildehaus admitted that he engaged in illegal sexual activity with a 15-year-old female victim. Gildehaus and the victim met on an online social media platform. Gildehaus met with the victim on five separate occasions between Aug. 5, 2022, and Jan. 5, 2023, to engage in illicit sexual activity at different locations, including a middle school parking lot.

Gildehaus admitted that the child victim took photographs of herself when she was home, and he took photographs of himself that he sent to her. Gildehaus also admitted that he recorded videos of their sexual encounters.

Gildehaus will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen Brackett. It was investigated by the Grain Valley, Mo., Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

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."