A registered sex offender in Springfield, Mo., pleaded guilty in federal court today to receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet.
Frank A. Kuhn, 52, of Springfield, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to the charge contained in a Jan. 18, 2017, federal indictment. Kuhn was convicted of the deviate sexual assault of a 15-year-old victim in 1994 in Newton County, Mo.
According to court documents, investigators received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding four images of child pornography reported by Yahoo! employees. Kuhn was identified as the user responsible for transmitting the images.
On Nov. 29, 2016, officers executed a search warrant at Kuhn’s residence and seized computers, digital storage media and phones. Investigators found multiple images of child pornography on the digital storage devices.
Under federal statutes, Kuhn is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 40 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. 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 James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Springfield, Mo., Police Department and the Greene County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.
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