KC Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Distributing Child Porn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Kansas City, Mo., man has been sentenced in federal court for distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Joseph Frank Sliepka IV, 31, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013, to 10 years in federal prison without parole followed by 20 years of supervised release.

On May 21, 2013, Sliepka pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography over the Internet. Sliepka admitted that he sent an email to an undercover federal agent in which he expressed a desire to trade images of child pornography. The e-mail included an attached image of child pornography that depicted a 6- or 7-year-old child. Sliepka asked the undercover agent to “Show me what you like and I’ll send more of it…Lets have some fun….”

Law enforcement agents executed a search warrant at Sliepka’s residence and seized his laptop computer. Investigators determined that there were 24 more e-mails from March 25 to April 6, 2013, that contained approximately 63 images and 27 movies of child pornography. These images and videos depict children ages one to 12.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Daly. It was investigated by U.S. 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."