Joplin man pleads guilty to child pornography charges

A Joplin man pleaded guilty this morning in U. S. District Court in Springfield to receiving and distributing child pornography.

A pre-sentence investigation was ordered for Richard Ray Thuerauf, 49, who was indicted in February by a federal grand jury.

Thuerauf's crime was detailed in the plea agreement:

On August 28, 2017, Joplin, Missouri, Police Department (JPD) Officer Laken Rawlins was dispatched to a residence in Joplin, Missouri. Upon arrival, Officer Rawlins contacted Katherine Thuerauf. Katherine stated that on August 27, 2017, she got on to her husband, Richard Ray Thuerauf’s, HP laptop computer and observed child pornography images in the trash bin application. 

On August 28, 2017, SMCCTF TFO Matthew Smith made contact with Thuerauf. Post-Miranda Thuerauf stated he had images of child pornography saved on the laptop computer and his iCloud account. Thuerauf admitted that he used his Apple iPhone 7+ to search for child pornography. On August 29, 2017, SMCCTF TFO Larry Roller conducted a forensic examination on Thuerauf’s Apple iPhone 7+. TFO Roller located numerous images of child pornography, that is children less than 18 years of age engaged in sexually explicit conduct. 

On December 21, 2017, TFO Smith applied for and received a search warrant from the Jasper County Circuit Court for the search of Thuerauf’s Apple iCloud account and mr.rayt@yahoo.com. On January 23, 2018, Apple Inc., responded to the search warrant. TFO Roller created a mirror image of the disk provided by Apple. Thuerauf had e-mailed multiple images of child pornography from his iCloud account, mr.rayt@icloud.com to mr.rayt@yahoo.com. August 18, 2017, was the first instance on which images were e-mailed between the two accounts. There were multiple images of child pornography saved inside Thuerauf’s iCloud Photo Library. TFO Roller confirmed that the Apple iPhone 7+ was manufactured outside the state of Missouri and would have had to cross state lines to enter. 

A detention motion filed by the U. S. Attorney in February said Thuerauf had more than 1,000 child pornography images on his cell phone and 282 more on his iCloud.

Sentencing guidelines indicate Thuerauf will have to spend at least five years in prison and could receive a sentenced of as much as 20 years.