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

Elvon L. Arndt, 66, of Kansas City-North, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 20 years in federal prison without parole.

Arndt, who pleaded guilty on March 12, 2010, admitted that he used a minor to attempt to produce child pornography. In the summer of 2006, 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 was 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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