Stotts City man pleads guilty to child pornography charge

(From the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri)

Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Stotts City, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to attempting to manufacture child pornography by secretly videotaping a child victim in the shower.

Christopher L. Modglin, 45, of Stotts City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to one count of attempting to manufacture child pornography.

By pleading guilty today, Modglin admitted that he secretly recorded video of a child victim between the ages of 11 and 13 years old taking a shower. Modglin also admitted that he owned several computers that contained images and movies of child pornography.

According to today’s plea agreement, the victim’s father notified the Lawrence County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department that his daughter told him about Modglin trying to put a camera in her bedroom on multiple occasions. Based on this information, the child victim was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center. During the interview, the child victim stated that she had seen a video on Modglin’s cell phone of herself taking off a swim suit and getting into a shower.

Sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at Modglin’s residence and seized three desktop computers and a laptop computer, all of which contained images and movie files of child pornography involving victims between the ages of 8 to 13 years old. One of the desktop computers contained seven video files that Modglin had made of the child victim in various stages of undress. Officers also seized a thumb drive that contained one of the videos of the child victim, which had been erased. The same thumb drive also contained an erased child pornography movie file. Three additional computers did not contain any child pornography.

In total, the officers seized material that contained seven video files of child pornography manufactured by Modglin, 51 movie files that contained child pornography and 17 images of child pornography.

When Modglin was arrested, officers also discovered a USB flash drive in his wallet that contained the seven video files he manufactured of the child victim.

Under Department of Justice guidelines, the attempted production of child pornography is ordinarily charged in cases that involve surreptitious recordings. The statutory penalties for producing child pornography are the same as the penalties for attempting to produce child pornography.

Under federal statutes, Modglin is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 30 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000 and an order of restitution. 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 Randall D. Eggert. It was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and the Lawrence County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.