Rusty J. Rose, Child Pornography, Missouri 2019

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court today for downloading and distributing hundreds of images and videos of child pornography over the internet.

Rusty J. Rose, 41, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 12 years and seven months in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Rose to 15 years of supervised release following incarceration, and ordered him to pay $12,000 in restitution to his victims.

On Nov. 20, 2019, Rose pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography.

On July 24, 2018, law enforcement received a Cybertipline Report of a video of child pornography uploaded to Rose’s Google account. While officers were investigating the report, Rose assaulted a 14-year-old girl by grabbing her buttocks in a Kum & Go gas station in Springfield on Aug. 13, 2018.

On Sept. 27, 2018, law enforcement received another Cybertipline Report of images of child pornography uploaded to Rose’s Tumblr account. On the same day, law enforcement received additional Cybertipline Reports of child pornography videos uploaded to Rose’s Sendvid account and distributed to other users.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nhan D. Nguyen. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.

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.