PB Man is Facing Child Porn Charge
By Michelle Friedrich, Associate Editor -DAR
A Poplar Bluff man is free on bond after turning himself in Tuesday morning on a warrant charging him with possessing child pornography.
Coy Delaney Alspaugh, 51 of the 200 block of County Road 527 surrendered at about 10:15 a.m. to Poplar Bluff Police Detective Jeff Shackelford.
Alspaugh, who was booked at the Butler County jail and released after posting a $10,000 bond, was charged Monday with the Class D felony of possession of child pornography by Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Barbour.
The complaint on file with
the court alleges on May 5 Alspaugh “knowing its contents and character, possessed obscene material, consisting of
video files depicting females
being sexually assaulted forced to have sexual intercourse and performing oral sex on unknown adult males and other prepubescent males,”
and said video files portrayed
“what to be a under the appears of 14 person as a
age years participant of sexual conduct.” The charge against Alspaugh is the result of an investigation by Shackelford, who is commander of the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force, and Scott Phelps, a sergeant with the Butler County Sheriff’s Department and task force investigator.
“Through the use of a tracking program designed by the (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Force to track persons collecting and trading items of child pornography
through file sharing networks
I was given the February 2008 database results for the state of Missouri which showed one IP address in particular in the Poplar Bluff area that had numerous transmissions (uploads/ downloads) of child pornography,” Shackelford explained in
his probable cause affidavit.
A trace of the IP (Internet protocol) address was conducted and the City of Poplar Bluff - Municipal Utilities (City Cable) was found to be the owner Shackelford said
“The user , /subscriber infor . - mation was obtained through a subpoena, and found that Bryan Alspaugh … was the account holder of this Internet protocol address (through his City Cable Internet account),” Shackelford said.
When Bryan Alspaugh was interviewed Shackelford said, he learned that Alspaugh’s father and brother also used the computer.
“I received consent to search this computer in a forensic examination and found numerous video and image
files of child pornography and
mainly all of these were of prepubescent females ” said Shackelford, who interviewed Bryan Alspaugh’s father, Coy Alspaugh, regarding his findings.
After being told of his rights, the elder Alspaugh agreed to talk with Shackelford.
“In this interview, Coy
admitted that all the files of
child pornography were his and that he had obtained these from the Internet ” Shackelford
said. “Most of the video files
depicted females, approximately 6 to 12 years of age, and possibly younger being sexually assaulted and forced to have sexual intercourse or perform sex on unknown males and other prepubescent males.”
Alspaugh, according to Shackelford, told him he had
acquired all of these files and
that “he had hidden the folder
containing these files in the computer’s file structure so
that his sons or visiting friends would not see them on the computer.
“Coy stated that he knew
the files were illegal, and that he acted alone in acquiring and saving of these files.”
5-year sentence in Butler Co. porn case
By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH, DAR
Associate Editor
CAPE GIRARDEAU — A Hazelwood man was sentenced Monday to more than
five years in federal prison
for possessing child pornography.
Brian M. Keiper, 34, was sentenced to 63 months on two counts of possession of child pornography, with the sentences ordered to run concurrently, by U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton, according to the
U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Upon his release from prison, Keiper will be placed supervised release for the remainder of his life.
The charges against Keiper stem from an investigation, which began in early February 2007, by Jeff Shackelford with the Poplar Bluff Police Department and resulted in Keiper’s arrest in Poplar Bluff and the execution of a search warrant at his home on March 15, 2007.
Keiper’s computer, along with computer discs, webcam and other associated items, were seized and forensically examined by the Regional Computer Crimes Education and Enforcement Group.
Forensic analysis of Keiper’s computer and floppy discs reportedly revealed Keiper possessed at least 150 image files
of child pornography, that is images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Furthermore, according to
the U.S. Attorney’s Office,
some of the images contained sadistic and masochistic conduct and some of the images involved children under the age of 12.
Keiper still faces an unclassified felony of attempted enticement of a child in Butler County. In December, he was granted a change of venue on the state charge to Madison County.
Keiper is to appear there at 9 a.m. March 20 for a plea before Circuit Judge Kenneth Pratte.
The charge stems from an “undercover, online investigation,” Shackelford said at the time of Keiper’s March arrest
.
“During the course of the investigation, (Keiper) indicated his willingness and desire to make arrangements to travel to Poplar Bluff for an encounter of a sexual nature with a presumed 14-year-old female,” said Shackelford, who is commander of the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force.
At one point, Shackelford said, Keiper allegedly transmitted a “real-time video feed via a computer webcam to the presumed 14-year-old girl, which depicted the suspect performing a sexual act.”
A meeting was arranged between Keiper and the presumed teenage girl.
Surveillance teams comprised of officers with the police
department, SEMO Drug Task Force and the Hazelwood Police Department located Keiper entering the city limits of Poplar Bluff, Shackelford said.
“(Keiper) was followed to a predetermined location where the suspect thought he was going to meet the presumed 14-year-old female,” Shackelford explained.
Upon Keiper’s arrival at that location, he was arrested without incident
.
Keiper was taken to the police station, where he was told of his rights and agreed to speak
with officers.
According to Shackelford, Keiper admitted to setting up the encounter.
During the interview, Keiper indicated he had “images that (were) of an illegal nature downloaded on his computer,” Shackelford said.
Keiper reportedly told officers he was solely responsible for the images on the computer and discs.
From KFVS12 "Heartland News"
Man Busted on Child Porn Charges
By: CJ Cassidy
FISK, Mo. - We often pass on warnings to parents to check on kids when they go online. But what happens if your child's an adult?
Police say they tracked down their suspect when he sent child porn videos and talked to someone he thought was a young girl online.
Now his mother says regardless of what happens, he can no longer live under her roof.
From deep inside his parents' rural Fisk home, police say 53-year-old Michael Dissler reached out to the rest of the world with a stack of child porn.
His mother, Mabel Rowe, says she knew her son was a registered sex offender but she had hoped he'd turned over a new leaf.
"He was on the computer a lot and watched kids. I jumped all over him. He didn't stop it...I asked him what in the hell is he doing? I said don't you know you're messing with these kids against the law? He said 'These aren't American kids, they're foreign ones.' I said don't make a damn, kids are kids," Rowe said.
Investigator Jeff Shackelford with the Poplar Bluff Police Department says police first came across Dissler about a year ago when an Internet service provider alerted them to an online chat.
They also point to a duffel bag full of unusual items, investigators say belongs to Dissler.
"We had a bag of condoms, a roll of duct tape, male enhancement formula," Shackelford said.
He also says they also found some rope in the bag and a notebook in which Dissler allegedly kept some interesting records.
"Detailed logs and notebooks of various people, including young females. The entire contents of that notebook are potentially beneficial to further investigation," he said.
Meanwhile, Mabel Rowe says she's angry and disappointed in her son.
"I'm very upset. There's no reason for him to do something like that," she said.
Rowe says if her son did do the crimes he's accused of doing, he should face punishment.
Michael Dissler's being held in the Butler County Jail.
Article from Daily American Republic...
Child porn arrest made -
No bond for Fisk resident
By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH
Associate Editor
An investigation by local authorities into three cybertipline reports led to a Fisk man being charged Thursday with possessing child pornography.
Michael Charles Dissler, 53, was charged with the Class D felony of possession of child pornography by Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Barbour.
The complaint on file with
the court alleges on Jan. 15 Dissler, “knowing its contents and character, possessed obscene material consisting of numerous images of nude children engaged in sexual intercourse, digital penetration and oral sex, that portrays what appears to be a person under the age of 14 years as a participant of sexual conduct.”
Barbour submitted a letter to the court asking for Dissler to be held without bond.
“Due to the serious nature of the crime, the defendant’s criminal history and that (he) had in his possession a backpack containing a new roll of duct tape, a new roll of rope, a bag of condoms, two tubes of ‘Maxoderm’ male enhancement cream, Q-tips and a printed pornographic image of a female, I believe that (Dissler) poses a definite flight risk and is a danger to the community,” Barbour said. “I would request that (he) be held without bond … ”
After considering the proba-
ble cause affidavit filed with the court, Associate Circuit Judge John Bloodworth issued a warrant for Dissler’s arrest.
“Court reviews the letter, complaint and probable cause
statement and finds (Dissler) to be a flight risk and a threat
to the community safety, and orders (him) held without bond until further notice,” according to an entry on the Missouri State Courts Automated Case Management System.
During a court appearance Thursday, Dissler was formally arraigned on the charge, and his attorney, Pamela Musgrave with the Public Defender’s Of-
fice, made an oral motion for
bond reduction.
After Assistant Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Oesterreicher reportedly objected, Musgrave orally requested a bond investigation be done.
Bloodworth granted that request and ordered Dissler to appear Feb. 7 for a bond hearing and at 1 p.m. Feb. 21 for a preliminary hearing.
The charge against Dissler stems from an investigation by Jeff Shackelford with the Poplar Bluff Police Department and other members of the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force from the Butler County Sheriff’s Department and Dexter Police Department.
The investigation into three “cybertipline reports concluded that an adult male,” later identi-
fied as Dissler, had “conversed
with an underage female by use of the Internet chat provider AOL (America Online Inc.), and that the conversation was
of a sexual nature, specifically
Dissler asking the child for oral sex,” Shackelford said in his
probable cause affidavit.
The cybertipline information also included AOL reporting “they had caught the trans-
mission of two video files they
suspected to be child pornography being sent from an e-mail account owned by Dissler,” said Shackelford, who serves as commander of the Cyber Crimes Task Force.
On Jan. 15, Shackelford
said, he went to Dissler’s residence in the 7000 block of County Road 644 to follow up on the tips generated from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
A consensual search of Dissler’s computer, as well as printed images from his computer, which were housed in his bedroom, revealed “several images of child pornography … both on printed paper, as well
as residing in saved files to the
hard drive of (his) computer,” Shackelford explained
.
According to Shackelford, there were numerous images depicting children of prepubescent ages, as well as numerous ones of youth, around the age of puberty, in sexually explicit poses. Dissler, Shackelford said, made statements that he had pictures of “young girls in their early to mid-teens, both on his computer, as well as printed, and directed officers to the location of where he stored the printed images in a box under his bed … ”
Furthermore, Shackelford
said, one video file of suspected
child pornography was found on Dissler’s computer, which “depicted a 10- to 12-year-old female nude on a bed performing” a sex act.
Other images of “child pornography and suspected child pornography have been located on Dissler’s computer hard drive, and in the ‘My Documents’ folder of said hard drive,” Shackelford said.
Dissler was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his residence and taken to the police department, where he was told of his rights
.
During an interview, Dissler admitted “ownership of the computer, saying that he had purchased it new from a business, as well as claimed ownership, prior to its termination, of the AOL account ‘dss15,’” Shackelford explained.
That account, Shackelford said, was the one to “which several of the printed images of child pornography showed to have been sent to, thus showing that he was, in fact, the user of the account that received and printed and saved these images of child pornography.
“Furthermore, Dissler admitted to receiving and sending files of suspected child pornography through the use of AOL e-mail accounts.”
At this time, Shackelford
said, officers are not done
with the forensic analysis of Dissler’s computer and several other items of “investigative interest.”
Based on what is found, Shackelford said, he expects several more charges may be
filed against Dissler in the near
future, including the possible federal adoption of the case.
DAR/Paul Davis
Poplar Bluff Police Investigator Jeff Shackelford leads Michael Dissler into the police department following his arrest Wednesday afternoon.
Article from Daily American Republic...
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — MySpace reached an agreement with legal authorities in 49 states, including Missouri, on changing its social networking Web site to help prevent sexual predators and others from
misusing it, state officials
said Monday.
Several states' attorneys general said in a statement that MySpace will add several protections and participate in a working group to develop new technologies, including a way to verify the ages of users. Other social networking sites will be invited to participate.
MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., also will accept independent monitoring and changes the structure of its site.
The agreement was announced in Manhattan by attorneys general from New Jersey, North Carolina, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.
"The Internet can be a dangerous place for children and young adults, with
sexual predators surfing social
networking sites in search of potential victims and cyber bullies sending threatening and anonymous messages," said New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram.
One of the principals in overseeing the "success of these safeguards will be an online safety task force," explained Poplar Bluff Police Officer Jeff Shackelford, commander of the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force. "The task force will be a coordinated effort between MySpace and
all the attorney general offices
across the country in an effort to compile data throughout the year to track and monitor the successes we hope to see with the implementation of these new safeguards."
All the new policies and procedures are "great safeguards to help us keep our youth safe while utilizing social networking sites; however, with any policy and safeguard in place, none can protect our children 100 percent," Shackelford said.
Parents, Shackelford said, need to "realize they cannot rely solely on this for protecting their child, and they need to make sure and implement their own safeguards within the home."
Shackelford said it is not only adults, who are targeting and trying to exploit children online.
"Other teenagers are using avenues, such as the Internet and cellular phones, to target, bully or entice other youths in their age group," he said.
In Poplar Bluff, and the Southeast Missouri area in general, "our task force has seen an increase in social networking site incidents over the past year," Shackelford said.
Shackelford finds it
"enlightening" to see social networking sites, such as MySpace, work so "diligently with law enforcement to develop policies and safeguards in a joint effort to protect our children while online."
Legal authorities have long been seeking greater controls for networking sites to prevent predators from using them to contact children.
"We thank the attorneys general for a thoughtful and constructive conversation on Internet safety," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a written statement. "This is an industrywide challenge, and we must all work together to create a safer Internet."
He said the agreement includes measures "to provide a safer online experience for teens, and we look forward to sharing our ongoing safety innovations with other companies."
Law enforcement, according to Shackelford, would like to see more social networking sites take these steps to safeguard their users.
Among other measures, MySpace agreed to:
— Allow parents to submit children's e-mail addresses to MySpace to prevent anyone from misusing the addresses to
set up profiles.
— Make the default setting "private" for 16- and 17-yearold users.
— Respond within 72 hours to complaints about inappropriate content and devote more staff and resources to classify photographs and discussion groups.
— Strengthen software to
find underage users.
— Create a high school section for users under 18 years old.
Investigators have increasingly examined MySpace, Facebook.com and other sites where people post information and images and invite contact from other people.
New York investigators said
they set up Facebook profiles
last year as 12- to 14-year olds and were quickly contacted by other users looking for sex.
The multistate investigation of the sites — announced last year — was aimed at putting together measures to protect minors and remove pornographic material, but lawsuits
were possible, officials said.
Article from Southeast Missourian...
MySpace steps up security measures
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
By Bridget DiCosmo ~ Southeast Missourian
MySpace, a social networking Web site, agreed to initiate new safeguards to protect young people from online predators, welcome news to state and local law enforcement agencies.
In addition, representatives from MySpace and other social networking sites will create broad-based task force to develop age and identity verification software to be implemented on sites like MySpace and Facebook, according to a news release from Nixon's office.
Although local authorities say the new measures are an important step in the right direction, they caution that parental monitoring remains the most effective tool in ensuring the online safety of children and teens.
"No safeguard and no policy can protect a child 100 percent of the time. Parents still need to do their part in knowing what there are doing and who they're talking to," said Detective Jeff Shackelford, agency investigator for the Southeast Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.
Shackelford said the new safety measures MySpace has taken are meant to bolster parental attention, not replace it.
In a prepared statement, Nixon said parents who are actively involved in talking to their children about online activities are the most effective tool in protecting them from online dangers.
The best thing parents can do to protect their children is educate themselves, said Tammy Gwaltney, director of the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence.
"Speak the language, know what chat rooms are, what a blog is," Gwaltney said.
Gwaltney recommended that parents look at their children's online activities in the same light they'd view them going over to a friends house or to a party and ask just as many questions.
"I don't think people see the Internet as the same kind of social interaction," she said.
Gwaltney said about a half dozen cases her office dealt with in the past year involved social networking sites.
Among other measures, MySpace agreed to:
* Allow parents to submit children's e-mail addresses to MySpace to prevent anyone from misusing the addresses to set up profiles.
* Make the default setting "private" for 16- and 17-year-old users.
* Respond within 72 hours to complaints about inappropriate content and devote more staff and resources to classify photographs and discussion groups.
* Strengthen software to find underage users.
* Create a high school section for users younger than 18.
"We thank the attorneys general for a thoughtful and constructive conversation on Internet safety," MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a written statement. "This is an industrywide challenge, and we must all work together to create a safer Internet."
He said the agreement includes measures "to provide a safer online experience for teens, and we look forward to sharing our ongoing safety innovations with other companies."
MySpace has always been cooperative with law enforcement, and timely in their response to provide subpoenaed information in connection with criminal cases, Shackelford said.
In addition, they were quick in terminating the MySpace accounts of nearly 700 registered sex offenders the Attorney General's office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol found to be using the social networking site.
Investigators have increasingly examined MySpace.com, Facebook.com and other sites where people post information and images and invite contact from other people.
New York investigators said they set up Facebook profiles last year as 12- to 14-year olds and were quickly contacted by other users looking for sex.
All computer related crimes have risen significantly over the past year, Shackelford said.
In particular, "cyberbullying" has risen, where children target others in their own age groups, even classmates or neighbors, and harass one another with obscene photos, videos, or other bully-type behavior, Shackelford said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Article from Vox Magazine...
By Besa Luci
October 4, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
He’s still a cop, but Detective Mark Sullivan is through wearing a uniform. As of Monday, Oct. 1, he needed nothing more than his casual business attire and his passion for technology.
A 10-year veteran of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, Sullivan kept the streets safe as a patrol officer and advocated for youth safety as a school resource officer. Now he is the newest member of the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force, a law enforcement team that investigates online crimes such as child enticement and pornography. Missouri has four Internet crime task forces, three of which were born in the past year. Columbia’s unit was created at the beginning of this year.
Cleaning out the Web
A court trial is a meticulous process; thus the time between charge and conviction can be more than a year. Because of this, the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force has just seen the first conviction as a result of the work it’s done. Last year, before the task force formed, Detective Andy Anderson posed online as a 13-year-old girl and chatted with Raymond Grossich of St. Louis. After the task force’s January inception, it prepared the case for trial, and on Sept. 19, Grossich was found guilty of attempted enticement of a child, first-degree attempted statutory rape and first-degree attempted statutory sodomy. “As for cases initiated by the task force, we’ll see a lot more convictions in about a year would be my guess,” Anderson says.
As part of his transition from street to computer, Sullivan says he will take a more active approach to law enforcement by investigating computer crimes and searching for forensic evidence.
“I love working with technology,” he says. “Now, I’ll be using that love and strength to work and help kids in Columbia and Boone County as part of a task force.”
Among the task force’s initiators is Detective Andy Anderson from the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, who began investigating Internet crime in 1999.
Anderson says that the best parts of this job are that his team can stop crimes before they occur and that children might not be required to testify during trials. He says they have investigated more than 40 cases of child pornography this year.
The task force was formed in January with three members, two from the sheriff’s department and one from the Columbia Police Department. In August, it received a state grant of $146,248 for the addition of a new member. By the end of the six-week application-review period, Sullivan had the job.
This addition would have brought the task force’s members to four, but on Sept. 26, Detective Mike Lederle was redeployed by the Army. Columbia Police Sergeant Ken Hammond says that because they are first filling officer positions in the patrol unions, it will be “quite some time” before they find a replacement.
The greatest challenge for those officers joining Internet crime task forces is that their jobs have no real boundaries. In some ways, tracking criminals online is more challenging then catching them in action.
Lieutenant Joe Laramie, director of the Glendale Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in Glendale, Mo., says cooperative effort is the best way to conduct online investigations. This might begin with the investigator sitting in front of a computer, move to the officer conducting a home search and then to the detective interviewing the suspect.
“The bottom line for law enforcement is that we must remember it’s still about police work,” says Laramie, who has been working with Glendale’s Internet crime task force since it started in 2003. “It’s just technically challenging police work because of the Internet’s complexity. Much of what happens on the Internet isn’t as easily reported to law enforcement; the crime statistics are harder to get ahold of because many times there is cross jurisdiction dealing with it.”
The mid-Missouri task force also works with local law enforcement agencies in neighboring counties, one of which is SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force of the Poplar Bluff Police Department, which covers southeast Missouri.
Jeff Shackelford, a detective, runs the Poplar Bluff task force. He is involved in both proactive and reactive investigations; he goes undercover and also promotes public education, holds school presentations and talks to community groups, parents and other law-enforcement agencies.
Shackelford says that policing the Internet blurs the boundaries of serving one specific community. “These crimes are different from traditional crimes where people may have to worry about the people that live in their community or in the neighborhood,” he says. “Now, every time you go online, you open yourself to a criminal that’s not just state or nationwide, but you’re opening yourself globally.”
For Shackelford, the biggest difference with being an online cop is that as technology rapidly changes, there is a constant need for updated training. In the traditional aspects of the job, such as robbery or homicide, investigative techniques tend to remain the same.
“It’s a constant battle in keeping up with technology to stay ahead of the criminals,” he says. “It’s a crime that you can’t just walk in and see with your eyes like a burglary.”
For three days last week, around 400 Internet-crime investigators participated in “Protect Our Children,” a training seminar put together by the U.S. Department of Justice to discuss Internet child protections. Among the participants from Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas were Laramie, Shackelford, Sullivan and Anderson.
One case discussed at the training involved a phone call to Laramie from an Internet crime task force member in Ohio. The officer said that he was watching a webcam from a man in Dexter, Mo., and that the man on camera was actively molesting a child. The task force, with the FBI, arrested the perpetrator, who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.
“That’s just an example of the kinds of things happening all the time,” Laramie says. “Agencies are cooperating through the network.”
For Sullivan, the training has been a great exposure as he is meeting colleagues from across Missouri and neighboring states.
“We have the opportunity to get the training and understanding on how to try something new and different and to see how it can work for the community,” he says. “That’s really who benefits when we learn something new. It benefits the citizens all together.”
Article from Daily American Republic...
P.B. man gets max for having child porn
By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH
Associate Editor Billy S. Porch
CAPE GIRARDEAU — A Poplar Bluff man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Monday possessing child pornography.
Billy S. Porch
, 35, of the 1300 block of Lela Street was sentenced to
on one felony count of possession of child pornography by U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie Crites-Leoni. Ten years imprisonment reportedly was the maximum punishment Porch could have received.
Upon his release from prison, Crites-Leoni said, Porch will be placed on a lifetime term of supervised release.
“He was remanded to the custody of the (U.S.) Marshals” after he was sentenced, she said.
With his earlier plea, Porch admitted on Feb. 12 law
enforcement officers executed
a search warrant at his Lela Street residence, where he lived alone. Porch reportedly
believed the officers were there
because of his involvement with trading child pornography on the Internet.
As a result of the execution of the search warrant, the officers discovered Porch possessed a number of computers and multiple hard drives.
One - edly contained more than 600 still image files of child pornography, specifically images
of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Furthermore, some of the images reportedly contained sadistic or masochistic conduct and children under the age of 12.
During a subsequent interview, Porch admitted he possessed child pornography. He also reportedly stated he had been using the shareware Internet Relay Chat client, “mIRC,” to receive and send images of child pornography for some time.
Porch also is charged with
the unclassified felony of firstdegree statutory sodomy and the Class D felony of incest in Butler County.
His case is set for trial at 9
a.m. Nov. 15 before Presiding Circuit Judge Mark Richardson. A pretrial conference also is set for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 30.
an investigation conducted by
Poplar Bluff Police Officer Jeff
Shackelford, which began on
Feb. 7 when he was contacted
by an investigator with the Grafton City Police Department in Illinois.
The investigator, Mike Weber, supplied Shackelford with copies of an “online chat between (Weber), acting in an undercover capacity, and the suspect, Billy S. Porch,” Shackelford said in his probable cause affidavit onfiile with
the Butler County court. “In these chat logs, the suspect wrote in detail about how he had sodomized” the 12-yearold victim.
Shackelford said he obtained a search warrant for Porch’s residence which was executed on Feb. 12. Computer equipment reportedly was among the items seized from the residence.
After being told of his rights, Porch subsequently was interviewed, Shackelford said.
“ … the suspect stated, under Miranda, that sometime during the month of November 2006, he did, in fact, sodomize (the victim),” Shackelford said. “Porch admitted that this inci-… ”
Porch, according to Shackelford, provided details about the alleged acts.
The alleged victim also was interviewed, Shackelford said. “ … Her account of the incident was very similar to the account of the suspect’s,” he said.
Article from Daily American Republic...
Article from Daily American Republic...
Child porn
indictment began with local probe
:By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH
Associate Editor
CAPE GIRARDEAU — A Hazelwood man made his initial appearance in
federal court Wednesday afternoon on charges of possessing child
pornography.
The charges against Brian Keiper stem from an investigation, which
began in early February, by Jeff Shackelford with the Poplar Bluff
Police Department and resulted in the 34-year-old’s arrest in Poplar
Bluff and the execution of a search warrant at his home.
Keiper’s computer, along with computer discs, webcam and other
associated items, were seized and forensically examined by the Regional
Computer Crimes Education and Enforcement Group.
Images found during the forensic examination reportedly are the basis
for the two-count indictment, charging Keiper with possession of child
pornography.
The indictment was unsealed after Keiper appeared before U.S.
Magistrate Lewis Blanton for his “initial appearance, arraignment and
detention hearing,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie
Crites-Leoni.
After considering the “detention issue,” Crites-Leoni said, Blanton set
a bond, which Keiper posted.
Blanton also set Keiper’s pretrial motion hearing for 10:15 a.m. Aug.
27, Crites-Leoni said. A trial date, she said, will be scheduled at a
later time.
The indictment alleges on March 15 in St. Louis County, Keiper “did
knowingly possess” two, 3.5-inch diskettes containing “a graphic image
file of a collage of six pictures, depicting a nude prepubescent minor
female in various stages of performing oral sex on an adult male …” and
“a graphic image file, depicting a nude prepubescent minor female
performing oral sex on an adult male … ”
If convicted, Crites-Leoni said, Keiper faces a maximum term of
imprisonment of not more than 10 years and a fine of not more than
$250,000, followed by supervised release for the remainder of his life.
Keiper also is charged with an unclassified felony of attempted
enticement of a child in Butler County.
Keiper’s case, which was on Senior Judge James Hall’s docket in Butler
County Wednesday morning, was reset to 9 a.m. Sept. 21. At that time, a
defense motion for change of venue is expected to be heard.
The charge stems from an “undercover, online investigation,”
Shackelford said at the time of Keiper’s March arrest.
“During the course of the investigation, (Keiper) indicated his
willingness and desire to make arrangements to travel to Poplar Bluff
for an encounter of a sexual nature with a presumed 14-year-old
female,” said Shackelford, who is coordinator for the SEMO Cyber Crimes
Task Force.
At one point, Shackelford said, Keiper allegedly transmitted a
“real-time video feed via a computer webcam to the presumed 14-year-old
girl, which depicted the suspect performing a sexual act.”
A meeting was arranged between Keiper and the presumed teenage girl.
Surveillance teams comprised of officers with the police department,
SEMO Drug Task Force and the Hazelwood Police Department located Keiper
entering the city limits of Poplar Bluff, Shackelford said.
“(Keiper) was followed to a predetermined location where the suspect
thought he was going to meet the presumed 14-year-old female,”
Shackelford explained.
Upon Keiper’s arrival at that location, he was arrested without
incident.
Keiper was taken to the police station, where he was told of his rights
and agreed to speak with officers.
According to Shackelford, Keiper admitted to setting up the encounter.
During the interview, Keiper indicated he had “images that (were) of an
illegal nature downloaded on his computer,” Shackelford said.
Article from Daily American Republic...
By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH
Associate Editor - Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Gov. Blunt in town to make presentation; Task force gets grant to fight cyber crime
Law enforcement officers in Southeast Missouri will soon have
additional equipment to investigate online predators targeting
Missouri’s children.
Gov. Matt Blunt was in Poplar Bluff Monday to present a $48,168.93
grant to the Southeast Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, a
“multijurisdiction law enforcement unit, working to better protect
Missouri children.”
Founded in January, the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force is comprised of
nine agencies with one full-time investigator, Jeff Shackelford with
the Poplar Bluff Police Department, who also serves as the unit’s
coordinator.
The task force has four part-time investigators from the Cape Girardeau
and Dexter police departments, Butler County Sheriff’s Department and
42nd Judicial Circuit’s Juvenile Office in Wayne County.
It also has four “affiliate agencies.” They are the Piedmont and
Kennett police departments and sheriff’s departments in Wayne and
Ripley counties.
“Protecting children is obviously a primary responsibility of any just
society,” Blunt said. “We have a moral obligation to do all that we can
to protect our children and provide them with a safe environment to
grow and to learn and to discover.
“That’s why we’ve made the safety of children a priority in the state
capital.”
Missouri, according to Blunt, was one of the first state’s in the
nation to implement the Amber Alert Web portal to ensure “word could
spread as quickly as possible when a child has been abducted.”
Last year, Missouri passed its version of Jessica’s Law.
“Several states have a version of Jessica’s Law, but ours is one of the
toughest in the United States,” Blunt said. “Criminals that commit a
sexual offense against young Missouri children will have a life
sentence, at least 30 years of that will be served behind bars.
“ … We’ve sent a very powerful message to potential predators that this
is a crime we take very, very seriously.”
Blunt said quick response to child abduction and tough criminal laws to
punish those who harm children aren’t enough.
“We also need to be stopping these predators before they do harm,”
Blunt said. “Twenty years ago, parents maybe only had to worry about
people in their neighborhoods or their hometown.
“Today, sexual predators lurk online, and they could reside anywhere.”
Blunt said myspace.com recently announced it was removing online
profiles for 29,000 convicted sex offenders.
“It’s an important reminder there are literally thousands of potential
predators lurking on the Internet, and we need to provide law
enforcement with tools so they can be proactive in protecting our
families,” Blunt explained.
In this “new environment,” Blunt described parents as the primary
safeguards of their children’s safety.
Blunt said the state has provided funding for the INOBTR campaign or “I
know better” to help parents and concerned family members to “learn how
to keep their children safe on a very dangerous Internet. The Internet
is a good thing. It’s transformed our lives.
“It’s allowed us access to information that scholars of the past could
only dream of. It’s expanded American productivity (and) enhanced the
quality of life. It’s made a big difference, but evil people took a
good thing” and use it for an “evil purpose.”
The state’s “front line of defense” is task forces, such as the SEMO
Cyber Crime Task Force, Blunt said.
“In 2005, we created the cyber crime grants for funding to take a
proactive approach,” said Blunt, whose budget recommendation for fiscal
year 2008 includes $1.25 million for funding the task forces.
The more than $48,000 will allow the local task force to buy hardware,
including laptop computers, and software, including forensic analysis
software, as well as investigative software, Shackelford said.
Other equipment, according to Shackelford, will include digital
evidence storage devices and a forensic machine to “conduct byte-stream
imagining of hard drives for evidence recording.”
Further, he said, the money will be used to pay for the officers’
training and overtime.
“We currently have approximately 12 open cases, including possible
possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, as
well as other potential cases of online enticement of a child,”
Shackelford explained. “We have numerous other leads and/or tips
pending investigation into possessors of child pornography.”
Shackelford said the officers work both “proactive and reactive
investigations, as well as undercover online investigations. We also
provide training presentations to law enforcement, community groups,
schools and the public on Internet safety.”
Shackelford said the five “working member agencies” will work cases
throughout Southeast Missouri, while the four affiliate agencies will
“handle follow-up investigations on cases and leads within their
jurisdictions.”
“Sexual predators should be put on notice,” Blunt said. “In Missouri,
this is a crime we take very seriously.
“If they think they can roam into the Internet chat rooms and try to
lure young Missourians into extremely dangerous situations, they’re
wrong.”
Thanks to the cyber crime grant program, task forces throughout the
state and Jessica’s Law, “sexual predators in Missouri are more likely
to be caught, and when they are caught, they are more likely to spend
time behind bars,” Blunt said.
In presenting the ceremonial check, Blunt commended the law enforcement
agencies across Southeast Missouri for pooling their resources in a
proactive approach to helping to “keep our children safe.”
“Working together, you’ll get more than any one agency can do on their
own,” he said. “I want to commend you on that spirit of cooperation.…
Thank you for your service.
“It is, indeed, going to help make Missouri a safer place for young
Missourians.”
Missourians, according to Blunt, should “take pride in what we are
doing to protect children from these dangerous predators in the first
place, then to punish them very harshly (with) very stringent penalties
(for) those who commit these terrible offenses against young Missouri
children.”
Article from Southeast Missourian...
Grants target Internet crimes
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
By Peter Wylie ~ Southeast Missourian
Area law enforcement officers say recent grant funding will allow them to respond to Internet crimes more quickly and effectively.
The Scott County Computer Forensics and Online Investigations Initiative and the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., received 2008 Internet Cyber Crime Grant Program awards, announced by Gov. Matt Blunt on July 2. The Scott County initiative will receive $20,946.72 and the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force will receive $48,168.93.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that one in seven children will be solicited sexually on the Internet before they turn 18, and the two task forces aim to change that statistic in Southeast Missouri.
Jeff Shackleford, SEMO Cyber Crime Task Force coordinator with the Poplar Bluff Police Department, said the task force will use the grant to purchase new equipment and to fund an additional online investigator position. The SEMO Cyber Crime Task Force is a multijurisdictional squad, including Cape Girardeau Police Department detective Henry Voelker, that addresses Internet crimes, primarily those against children.
"This is the largest amount of funding we've received to date," Shackleford said.
Shackleford said the task force plans to acquire laptops with wireless cards that will allow investigators to access the Internet from remote locations. The task force also will buy software that enables the collection of digital forensic evidence and bolsters online investigative abilities to help catch Internet sex predators and child pornographers.
"The grant will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the SEMO Cyber Crime Task Force," Shackleford said. "It will give us advanced technology to combat online crime and hardware to conduct our own online forensic investigations."
Shackleford said the funding will enable the task force to gather evidence from suspects' computers on-site instead of sending the computers to other agencies. He said the task force had to send the computers off-site initially, which cost valuable time in investigations.
Lt. Jerry Bledsoe, head of the Scott County Computer Forensics and Online Investigations Initiative, said the grant will quicken investigations in Scott County as well.
"Now when we seize a computer and need to recover data, we're going to be able to do it quickly," Bledsoe said. "In the first part of 2005, we worked a case with a missing girl. If we had been able to get on her computer quickly to find out who she was talking to before she disappeared, I think we could have found her faster."
In addition to providing overtime pay for officers assisting in online investigations, Bledsoe said the grant will fund a dedicated Internet connection to allow constant monitoring of suspects, additional computers and forensic software.
In February and May, Bledsoe attended five weeks of computer forensic training classes in California and Florida offered by the International Association of Computer Investigation Specialists. He said he learned how to recover data from e-mail accounts, cell phones and computer hard drives for use in criminal investigations. A 2007 Internet Cyber Crime grant paid for the training.
"The training has been very beneficial," Bledsoe said. "I'm still getting my feet wet, but I have several cases pending where I've been able to use what I learned."
Tammy Gwaltney, director of the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence, said the grant funding will improve investigation of Internet crimes against children in the area.
"We're happy to see money given to these organizations who we collaborate with frequently," Gwaltney said.
Gwaltney said the grants will identify more victims of Internet crime, but she would like to see additional funding for child advocacy groups that serve the victims.
"While our caseload is constantly increasing because of the additional enforcement, there is not more money budgeted by the state for the treatment of the victims," Gwaltney said.
The Missouri Department of Public Safety administered the grants after a competitive application process.
The funds are distributed to law enforcement agencies through their city or county governments and can be used for online investigator salaries, training expenses and equipment and supplies purchases for cyber crime task forces.
pwylie@semissourian.com
Article from "The Daily American Republic"
Internet contact was officer not teen
-St. Louis man may face sex charge
By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH Associate Editor
Charges are expected to be filed today against a Hazelwood man who came to Poplar Bluff with intentions of meeting an underage girl for what authorities described a sexual encounter. “In the first part of February, an undercover, online investigation was started focusing on the suspect, Brian Keiper,” explained Poplar Bluff Police Officer Jeff Shackelford. “During the course of the investigation, the suspect indicated his willingness and desire to make arrangements to travel to Poplar Bluff for an encounter of a sexual nature with a presumed 14-year-old female.” At one point, Shackelford said, Keiper allegedly transmitted “a real-time video feed via a computer webcam to the presumed 14-yearold girl, which depicted the suspect performing a sexual act.” At about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, surveillance teams comprised of officers with the police department, SEMO Drug Task Force and Hazelwood Police Department located Keiper entering the city limits of Poplar Bluff, Shackelford said. “(Keiper) was followed to a predetermined location where the suspect thought he was going to meet the presumed 14-year-old female,” Shackelford explained. Upon Keiper’s arrival at that location, Shackelford said, he was arrested without incident. The 33-year-old was arrested on suspicion of enticement of a child and furnishing pornographic materials to minors. Keiper was taken to the police station where he was told of his rights and agreed to speak to officers “concerning the incident,” Shackelford said. According to Shackelford, Keiper is cooperating with the investigation and he admitted to setting up the encounter. “In addition to this incident, during the interview, the suspect indicated he has images that are of an illegal nature downloaded on his computer,” Shackelford said During the evening hours, Shackelford said, a search warrant was obtained for Keiper’s Hazelwood residence. Shackelford said it subsequently was executed with the assistance of officers with the Hazelwood Police Department. Keiper’s computer, along with computer discs, webcam and other associated items, were seized and await forensic examination, Shackelford said. “As part of the investigation, the computers and hard drives will be turned over the Regional Computer Crimes Education and Enforcement Group for examination,” said Police Capt. Jeff Rolland. “We anticipate additional charges pending the outcome of the examinations.” Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley agreed. “( Shackelford) has been in constant contact with the FBI during the investigation and we foresee a strong possibility of federal prosecution in this case,” Whiteley explained. Whiteley commended Shackelford on his “outstanding work” as coordinator of the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force, which is a affiliated member of the Missouri Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC). “He initiated, coordinated and executed the investigation,” which included officers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Hazelwood Police Department and ICAC, Whiteley said. “This team effort culminated in the arrest of a predator, who targets our children, and was specifically targeting one in our city,” Whiteley explained.
Article from "The Daily American Republic"
P.B. man pleads to child porn
By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH
Associate Editor
CAPE GIRARDEAU — A Poplar Bluff man faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty Monday to a child pornography charge. Billy S. Porch, 35, of the 1300 block of Lela Street pleaded guilty to one felony count of possession of child pornography before U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel, according to the Assistant U.S. Attorney Abbie Crites-Leoni. Sippel set sentencing for Sept. 24. At that time, Porch faces a maximum
of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, followed by a period of supervised release for the remainder of his life.
With his plea, Porch admitted on Feb. 12 law enforcement officers
executed a search warrant at his Lela Street residence, where he lived alone. Porch reportedly believed the officers were there because of his involvement with trading child pornography on the Internet. As a result of the execution of the search warrant, the officers discovered Porch possessed a number of computers and multiple hard drives. One of the computers reportedly contained more than 600 still image files of child pornography, specifically images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Furthermore, some of the images reportedly contained sadistic or
masochistic conduct and children under the age of 12.
During a subsequent interview, Porch admitted he possessed child pornography. He also reportedly stated he had been using the shareware Internet Relay Chat client, “mIRC,” to receive and send images of child pornography for some time.
Porch also is charged with the unclassified felony of first-degree
statutory sodomy and the Class D felony of incest in Butler County. He is to appear at 8:30 a.m. July 3 before Presiding Circuit Judge Mark Richardson for announcement in his case. Porch’s attorney, Carl Miller, earlier filed a motion for change of venue, which may be ruled on at that time. The charges stem from an investigation conducted by Poplar Bluff Police Officer Jeff Shackelford, which began on Feb. 7 when he was contacted
by an investigator with the Grafton City Police Department in Illinois. The investigator, Mike Weber, supplied Shackelford with copies of an “online chat between (Weber), acting in an undercover capacity, and the suspect, Billy S. Porch,” Shackelford said in his probable cause affidavit on file with the Butler County court. “In these chat logs, the suspect wrote in detail about how he had sodomized” the 12-year-old victim. Shackelford said he obtained a search warrant for Porch’s residence, which was executed on Feb. 12. Computer equipment reportedly was among
the items seized from the residence. After being told of his rights, Porch subsequently was interviewed, Shackelford said.
“ … the suspect stated, under Miranda, that sometime during the month of November 2006, he did, in fact, sodomize (the victim),” Shackelford said. “Porch admitted that this incident took place in his bedroom … ” Porch, according to Shackelford, provided details about the alleged acts.
The alleged victim also was interviewed, Shackelford said. “ … Her
account of the incident was very similar to the account of the
suspect’s,” he said. Assisting in the federal investigation were members of the FBI, the Southeast Cyber-Crimes Task Force, the Poplar Bluff Police Department, the Regional Computer Crimes Education and Enforcement Group, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Article from "The Southeast Missourian"
Agents: Parents should 'be nosy' about Net use
Saturday, June 16, 2007
By Peter Wylie ~ Southeast Missourian
Where child predators previously had to target children at public places or homes, now a single mouse click gives them access to chat rooms and social networking sites where children are not always so closely monitored.
Pedophiles lead children from initial contact to private face-to-face meetings through a process known as grooming. The pedophiles may send gifts or play games with the child over the Internet and often pose as children to create a higher comfort level with their young target.
FBI Special Agent Tom Blades described an instance where a pedophile sent a Webcam to a child as a gift. But the pedophile had installed a Trojan horse that allowed him to turn on the camera by remote, letting him view the child's bedroom at all times.
"You, as a parent, have to be aware," Blades said.
June is Internet Safety Month, and law enforcement agencies are using the opportunity to warn parents about the growing instance of cyber sex crimes against children. This week, Blades gave a presentation to parents, educators and child-care providers at Southeast Missouri Hospital on how to keep children safe from online sex predators.
Blades works on the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, which advises local law enforcement in abduction cases.
The Internet poses new threats to children because of the ease with which predators can meet and talk with them, Blades said. "There are predators out there trying to lure young people. Lots of predators 'troll' Web sites and chat rooms for children they can exploit."
Blades said parents have an obligation to monitor their children's Web use actively. "It's easy for the child to say they're doing research or talking to friends, and you go and start watching TV," Blades said. "Before you know it, it's three hours later and who knows who the child's been talking to?"
Unexpected gifts from strangers are just one of many warning signs that should alert parents to possible online relationships with sex predators. If a child withdraws from family and friends and begins to spend all their free time on the Internet, parents should start asking questions, Blades said.
"Talk to them, don't interrogate them. You do have to be somewhat of an investigator and be nosy, but it's for your child's safety. Our job is to help them make wise decisions," he said.
Federal prosecutor Catherine Hanaway said her office has one of the highest rates of prosecution of sex crimes against children in the nation.
"We have a lot of child exploiters in the area, but we also have excellent investigators," Hanaway said. "Through Project Safe Childhood, launched by Attorney General Gonzales, we've been able to increase public awareness of these online crimes and increase prosecutions of exploiters."
Though the Internet gives predators more means to exploit children, Hanaway said it also can be an effective investigative tool. "There have always been child molesters and child pornographers," she said. "But they didn't feel comfortable walking into a supermarket and saying 'I'm a child molester.' For some reason, they feel comfortable sharing these things on the Internet, and that makes it easy for investigators to track."
Hanaway said she works with federal and state investigators on cases, but more cases originate with local law enforcement officers like Jeff Shackelford, of the Poplar Bluff Police Department.
Shackelford, head of the SEMO Cyber Crime Task Force, a partnership between eight area law enforcement agencies. He said the Internet has created an environment where predators feel safe to pursue children. "Internet technology advances have created a universe where criminals can operate with anonymity," he said. "Traditional law enforcement methods no longer suffice in tracking down these criminals. That led to the formation of the task force."
Shackelford received online investigative training through Internet Crimes Against Children, a U.S. Justice Dept. program designed to target internet sex predators.
The task force helps law enforcement investigate Internet crimes against children and provides assistance in stopping predators before they strike. Shackelford said the majority of the cases the task force works involve child enticement and child pornography.
Investigators use undercover online investigations and a sophisticated system that can track users of child pornography to solve these crimes, according to Shackelford. He said the number of sex crimes against children involving the Internet has increased since the task force was founded in January.
"My stack of cases just grows and grows," he said. "These investigations are often painstaking and lengthy, so by the time you finish one case you've got two more in its place."
Shackelford said another goal of the task force is to constantly educate and inform other law enforcement officers about Internet sex crimes and their prevention. "Predators will soon know that they will not be safe in this area," Shackelford said. "Our task force will actively investigate and prosecute these crimes in order to eradicate child predators in Southeast Missouri."
The SEMO Network Against Sexual Violence worked with more than 600 children in 2006. Cases are referred to NASV once there are allegations that a child was abused or exposed to pornography. "The investigators are experts in gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses," executive director Tammy Gwaltney said, "but we are contacted because our staff has expertise in interviewing children."
SEMO-NASV's specially trained forensic nurses administer Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence exams to children who have suffered abuse.
Gwaltney said children are often afraid or embarrassed to talk about sexual abuse. The nurses' training prepares them to get children to open up. They also are trained to understand the verbal and cognitive abilities of all ages of children so they recognize how a child communicates about abuse.
Gwaltney said Web sites like inobtr.org are helping educate parents and children about online dangers before abuse occurs. INOBTR gets its name from the Internet shorthand for "I know better." The site was launched in October after a $100,000 gift from Steve Schankma, a philanthropist from St. Louis, according to INOBTR spokeswoman Kelly McMahon.
McMahon said the site provides education for parents, children and educators about online safety. It offers tips on online sex crime prevention as well as a "cyberspeak" dictionary that explains chat lingo to parents.
The site also has contact numbers for reporting suspicious online behavior.
In another effort to stanch opportunities for online sex predators, Gov. Matt Blunt asked Attorney General Jay Nixon this week to use his subpoena power to request the names of Missouri sex offenders using social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. According to Blunt spokeswoman Jessica Robinson, the governor has recommended doubling funding for the Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force, a group of investigators at law enforcement agencies that collaborate to provide resources to pursue sex offenders.
Robinson said Blunt also advocated a new law making it a crime to solicit a minor online even if the minor was a police officer posing as a child.
Federal prosecutor Hanaway said the collaborative efforts of law enforcement agencies and proactive parents will help reduce the number of child sex crimes. "The best-case scenario is to give children the tools and education to protect themselves before they become victims," she said.
pwylie@semissourian.com
