Plato Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Producing Child Porn

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Plato, Mo., man who initially confessed during a pre-employment polygraph examination when he applied for employment at the Missouri State Highway Patrol was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography.

Cedric Lovejoy, 29, of Plato, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 20 years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Lovejoy to spend the rest of his life on supervised release following incarceration. Lovejoy pleaded guilty on Dec. 2, 2014.

Lovejoy participated in a pre-employment polygraph interview and examination conducted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Nov. 9, 2012. During the interview, Lovejoy confessed that he had taken video footage of himself receiving oral sex from the then-14-year-old victim. State troopers executed a search warrant at Lovejoy’s residence and seized his computers, which contained the child pornography video Lovejoy had taken with his cell phone.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by 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."