Maryville Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Child Porn, Faces at Least 15 Years in Prison

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Maryville, Mo., man who is a registered sex offender pleaded guilty in federal court today to charges related to child pornography.

Edward Grimes, 58, of Maryville, pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Greg Kays to the charges contained in a Sept. 19, 2014, federal indictment. Grimes, a registered sex offender, has prior felony convictions for sexual abuse and a criminal sexual act in New York.

By pleading guilty today, Grimes admitted that he attempted to distribute child pornography over the Internet on March 29, 2013; that he attempted to receive child pornography over the Internet on Dec. 31, 2013; and that he possessed child pornography on Feb. 12, 2014. Grimes must forfeit to the government two desktop computers, a laptop computer, four hard drives and a thumb drive that were used to commit the offenses.

The government also filed notice today of intent to rely on Grimes’s prior felony sex offenses for purposes of sentencing, which would subject Grimes to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole for each of the counts of attempting to distribute and to receive child pornography over the Internet, and to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole for possessing child pornography. 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 Catherine A. Connelly. It was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

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."