Unionville Man Pleads Guilty to Child Porn

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Unionville, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to possessing child pornography.

Joel R. Bremer, 50, of Unionville, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to the charge contained in an April 15, 2015, federal indictment.

According to today’s plea agreement, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department received a report in February 2013 from a 19-year-old female that she had been sexually abused by Bremer for a period of time when she was a child. She also stated that Bremer had taken nude photographs of her when she was a minor and that she had recently seen those pictures on his laptop computer, which he kept in his home.

Investigators with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department and the Kirksville Regional Computer Crimes Unit executed a search warrant at Bremer’s residence on Feb. 11, 2013, and seized a laptop computer and several CD/DVDs, which Bremer must forfeit to the government. A forensic analysis was conducted at the Kirksville Regional Computer Crime Laboratory. No pornographic images of the reporting party were located; however, the analysis located approximately 1,472 photos and 40 videos which contained child pornography that appeared to have been obtained via the Internet. The content of the numerous images and video files include depictions of adults engaging in sexual conduct with prepubescent children, including toddlers.

Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, the government will seek a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole. 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 David Luna. It was investigated by the Putnam County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, the Kirksville, Mo., Police Department and the Kirksville Regional Computer Crimes Unit.

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."