SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that a Willow Springs, Mo., man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for receiving and distributing child pornography.
Steven Edward Moffis, 31, of Willow Springs, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Nov. 14, 2017. The federal indictment replaces a criminal complaint that was filed against Moffis on Oct. 18, 2017. Moffis was arrested on Oct. 17, 2017, and remains in federal custody without bond.
The federal indictment alleges that Moffis received and distributed child pornography over the Internet from Feb. 14 through Oct. 12, 2017.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, a law enforcement officer identified Moffis’s computer on Sept. 20, 2017, while conducting an online child pornography investigation. Moffis’s computer allegedly shared 7,408 files of suspected child pornography on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network. The officer then learned that a detective in the Boone County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department had downloaded 690 suspected images of child pornography from Moffis’s computer.
On Oct. 6, 2017, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Moffis’s residence. According to the affidavit, investigators found one video and 41 images of child pornography on Moffis’s cell phone.
Larson cautioned that the charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ami Harshad Miller. It was investigated by the FBI, the West Plains, Mo., Police Department, the Willow Springs, Mo., Police Department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.
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)
