NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

BETH PHILLIPS

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov../index.html

MARCH 12, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

CLAY COUNTY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO ATTEMPTING

TO PRODUCE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY,

FACES 20 YEARS IN PRISON

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to attempting to produce child pornography.

Elvon L. Arndt, 66, of Kansas City-North, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner this afternoon to the charge contained in a Feb. 4, 2009, federal indictment. Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, Arndt will receive a sentence of 20 years in federal prison without parole.

Arndt admitted that in the summer of 2006 he used a minor to attempt to produce child pornography. According to the plea agreement, Arndt took photos of a clothed minor that focused on her pubic region while she was sitting on his lap with her legs spread. Arndt also admitted that he “photoshopped” the digital image, altering copies of the photos to create images of a naked girl by digitally cutting and pasting clips from nude images.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham. It was investigated by the FBI Cybercrimes Task Force, the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Saline County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, Missouri Child Safe of Central Missouri, Inc., and the Missouri Department of Social Services.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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