SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet.
Michael Greinke, 29, of Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to eight years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Greinke to pay $5,000 in restitution to one of his victims.
On May 16, 2016, Greinke pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography over the Internet between Jan. 1, 2014, and April 6, 2015.
On April 6, 2015, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Greinke’s residence after his computer was identified by investigators in Canada as having uploaded child pornography to an online social media platform. Officers seized a desktop computer, a laptop computer, two hard drives, three SD cards and a cell phone that were used to commit the offense.
This case was 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 Crime Task Force and the York Regional Police Service in Ontario, Canada.
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."