Monett Man Pleads Guilty to Child Porn, Identified in German Investigation

 

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Monett, Mo., man who was identified in a law enforcement investigation in Germany pleaded guilty in federal court today to receiving child pornography over the Internet.

Donald A. Rise, 57, of Monett, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge David P. Rush to the charge contained in a July 24, 2012 federal indictment.

By pleading guilty today, Rise admitted that he downloaded child pornography using various Web sites.

Rise was identified by German authorities who were investigating a Web site operated by a German citizen that was used to distribute child pornography. The German investigation resulted in the seizure of files from the Web site, including child pornography and log files. Information about computers in the United States that had downloaded child pornography from the German Web site was forwarded to the FBI, including a computer identified with Rise.

When officers contacted Rise at his residence, he admitted that he had viewed child pornography on his desktop computer the night before. Rise admitted that he had images of child pornography on his computer. He said the average age of the children depicted in those images was 12 years old and some of the images depict children in obvious distress.

Investigators conducted a forensic review of Rise’s computer and found 1,681 images of child pornography, including numerous images of children from 2 to 10 years old. The images depict children as young as toddlers being sexually assaulted by adult men and other children. Some images depict the children being restrained and gagged while being sexually abused and the children appear to be in distress and crying.

Under federal statutes, Rise is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 20 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000. 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 Gary K. Milligan. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the FBI.