Springfield Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Purchasing Pornographic Images, Videos from Child Victim

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for the sexual exploitation of a child.

Jason T. Bernard, 54, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark to 30 years and five months in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Bernard to a lifetime of supervised release following incarceration and ordered him to pay $171,000 in restitution.

On Aug. 29, 2023, Bernard pleaded guilty to one count of the exploitation of a child, one count of the coercion and enticement of a child, and one count of receiving child pornography.

The investigation began when nine CyberTips were received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on April 7, 2022. The nine CyberTips involved 145 images of child pornography, some victims as young as toddlers, that Bernard uploaded for storage to the Verizon Cloud.

After investigators identified Bernard as the account holder, they received information from law enforcement in North Carolina that Bernard also was involved in one of their investigations. For two years, Bernard had been sending funds through Cash App to a child victim identified in court documents as “Jane Doe 1,” starting when she was 12 or 13 years old. In exchange, the child victim sent pornographic images and videos of herself to Bernard.

Bernard admitted that he sent sex toys and alcohol to Jane Doe, and those items were later used to produce images that he purchased from Jane Doe. Bernard possessed more than 700 images and videos of the child victim.

Bernard also admitted to having multiple conversations with Jane Doe about her traveling to Missouri to meet him for sex, offered her money for this potential meeting, and had conversations with Jane Doe about purchasing either a plane ticket or a bus ticket to facilitate her travel to Missouri.

Investigators also discovered more than 1,500 additional images and videos of child pornography on Bernard’s cell phone.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan. It was investigated by the Greene County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, Homeland Security Investigations, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, and the Beaufort County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s 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."