KC Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Producing Child Porn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for attempting to produce child pornography.

Michael Dye, 48, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to 15 years in federal prison without parole.

Dye, who pleaded guilty on Feb. 19, 2016, admitted that he used a minor between the ages of 12 and 16 (identified as “Child Victim #2”) to produce child pornography between June 15, 2005, and Aug. 18, 2008.

Dye also admitted that he distributed those images of child pornography over the Internet to others, including co-defendant Thomas O’Brien, 56, of Rhode Island. O’Brien was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to the attempted sex trafficking of a child, to be served consecutively to his sentence of six years, followed by supervised release for the rest of his life, in the District of Rhode Island.

Dye admitted that this conduct constituted a pattern, in that there were multiple, separate instances involving prohibited sexual conduct involving Child Victim #2 and others during this time.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Daly. It was investigated by the FBI, the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Clay County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Platte County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Newport, R.I., Police Department, the Rhode Island State Police, the Winnipeg, Manitoba Police Service in Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Crown’s Attorney’s Office in Canada and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in the United Kingdom.