Lee's Summit Soccer Coach Charged

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., youth soccer coach was charged in federal court today with producing child pornography by secretly videotaping members of his soccer team.

Joel D. White, 40, of Lee’s Summit, was charged with producing child pornography in a criminal complaint that was filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. White, who coaches a girls under-12 soccer team and a girls under-15 soccer team through a local soccer association, remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today’s criminal complaint, law enforcement officers in Commerce City, Colo., discovered videos of nude minors on White’s camera. White was at a soccer stadium in Colorado last month for a World Cup qualifying game when the cameras were seized by law enforcement officers as part of a criminal investigation.

Several videos allegedly depict White positioning a video camera in a bedroom of his residence in such a way that the camera is hidden. Shortly after White leaves the room, the affidavit says, the videos depict several minors, approximately 11 or 12 years old, entering the room and changing their clothes. Minors are fully nude in the videos and do not appear to know they are being videotaped.

White allegedly told police that he videotaped nude minors 10 to 15 times without their consent from May to October 2012. According to the affidavit, at least four child victims have been identified so far in the investigation.

Dickinson cautioned that the charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge 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 the Lee’s Summit, Mo., Police Department and the Commerce City, Colo., 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."