Warrensburg Man Indicted for Child Porn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Warrensburg, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today for distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography.

Michael J. Craney, 48, of Warrensburg, was charged in a four-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo.

Today’s indictment alleges that Craney distributed child pornography over the Internet between March 21 and 25, 2013. Craney is also charged with two counts of receiving child pornography over the Internet on May 26 and July 7, 2013, and one count of possessing child pornography on Sept. 24, 2013.

The federal indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require Craney to forfeit to the government any property used to commit the alleged offenses, including a desktop computer, a laptop computer, three hard drives and a thumb drive.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore. It was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Warrensburg, Mo., Police Department.

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."