Joplin Man Sentenced for Child Porn

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Joplin, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Danny Wright, 62, of Joplin, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to nine years in federal prison without parole. Wright has been in federal custody since his arrest on June 23, 2014.

On Dec. 17, 2014, Wright pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography.

The investigation began when law enforcement received Cyber Tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding two e-mails that contained seven images of child pornography, depicting children that range in age from one or two years old to seven years old. On May 19, 2014, law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at the Joplin residence of James and Gina Hajny. James Hajny has pleaded guilty in a separate case to the sexual exploitation of two child victims and awaits sentencing. His wife, Gina Hajny, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and was sentenced on March 1, 2016, to five years in federal prison without parole.

Hajny told investigators that he had met Wright on a Russian website. He said he has never met Wright in person but they had exchanged pornographic photographs of children. On June 16, 2014, agents executed a search warrant at Wright’s residence. Wright admitted to investigators that he had distributed and downloaded child pornography over the Internet for several years.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the FBI, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Joplin, Mo., Police Department.

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."