KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Lee’s Summit, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for possessing child pornography.
Douglas E. Sands, 56, of Lee’s Summit, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to five years in federal prison without parole.
On May 24, 2016, Sands pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. Sands, who admitted that he had been looking at child pornography for almost 20 years, was identified as having downloaded a number of suspected child pornography files over the Internet through a peer-to-peer file-sharing program.
On Feb. 19, 2015, federal agents interviewed Sands at his residence and seized a desktop computer and two thumb drives. A forensic analysis located approximately 1,326 photos and 203 videos of child pornography on his computer equipment.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna. It was investigated by the FBI and the Internet Crimes Against Children 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."