AUGUST 29, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

JEFFERSON CITY ATTORNEY SENTENCED FOR CHILD PORN

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Bradley J. Schlozman, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Jefferson City, Mo., attorney was sentenced in federal court today for possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography.

Bruce Henwood Truesdale, 55, of Jefferson City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright this morning to five years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Truesdale to forfeit to the government a Dell Dimension personal computer used to commit the offense.

“The defendant downloaded thousands of images and videos of child pornography to his home computer, then offered to share those images with others via file-sharing programs,” Schlozman said. “This illegal online swapping enables sexual predators to further victimize young children. This is morally reprehensible, and particularly inexcusable for an attorney who has sworn to uphold the law.”

On May 3, 2006, Truesdale pleaded guilty to all of the charges contained in a June 20, 2005, federal indictment. Truesdale admitted that he was in possession of computer files containing child pornography on Aug. 26, 2004. Truesdale also admitted that he attempted to distribute child pornography over the Internet from at least as early as Sept. 19, 2003, and continuing to Aug. 26, 2004.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Lynn. It was investigated by the Regional Computer Crimes Education and Enforcement Group of St. Louis, the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.