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.justice.gov/index.html
JUNE 8, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD
LEE’S SUMMIT MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO
POSSESSING CHILD PORN
WIFE DISCOVERED THOUSANDS OF IMAGES
OF CHILD PORN ON COMPUTER
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to possessing child pornography.
Michael E. Hahn, 39, of Lee’s Summit, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan this morning to a federal information that charges him with possessing child pornography.
According to today’s plea agreement, Hahn’s wife discovered images of child pornography on the home computer and brought it to the Independence, Mo., Police Department. A forensic examination of the computer revealed that thousands of images of child pornography had been downloaded over the Internet using peer-to-peer file sharing software. The computer hard drive contained 3,569 images, many of which were child pornography; compact disks contained 2,477 images, many of which were child pornography.
Hahn told investigators that he had been downloading child pornography for about 11 years and, in that time, had downloaded approximately 300 videos and 10,000 images of child pornography.
Under the terms of today’s binding plea agreement, the government and Hahn agree that he should be sentenced to five 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 Jeff Valenti. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department.
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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