SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for enticing a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity and producing child pornography.
Michael William Brooks, Sr., 45, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to 40 years in federal prison without parole.
On March 15, 2017, Brooks pleaded guilty to one count of enticing a minor for the purpose of producing child pornography and one count of enticing a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity.
Law enforcement officers were notified of an emergency hotline call in December 2015 that reported Brooks was sexually abusing a 15-year-old victim, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe." Investigators examined Brooks’s phone in January 2016 and found multiple pornographic images of Jane Doe. More than 200 text messages between Brooks and Jane Doe also were located, in which Brooks discussed having sexual intercourse with Jane Doe.
Brooks admitted that he had sexual intercourse with Jane Doe beginning in August 2015. Brooks also admitted he took the sexually explicit pictures of Jane Doe using his cell phone.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI, the Lawrence County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, and the Springfield, Mo., Police 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."
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
