Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Former Joplin woman pleads guilty to creating porn with infant, could receive up to 30 years in prison

A former Joplin woman will serve at least 15 years in prison and possibly as much as 30 years after pleading guilty January 22 in U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky to using a minor in child pornography.

Paige Cagle, 26, made two child pornography videos of a child, who was between the ages of nine months and 18 months when she lived in Joplin, according to the news release from the U. S. Attorney.

After her release from prison, she will be required to register as a sex offender.

The investigation and arrest of Cagle was initiated in March 2019 by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.








From the U. S. Attorney's news release:

According to Cagle’s plea agreement, on March 1, 2019, officers were informed from a third party that he had received pornographic images from Cagle involving children. 

Cagle admitted to officers that on four to five occasions, she had sexually abused a minor child from the age of nine months to approximately 1.5 years old. 

Cagle further admitted that she made two videos of the sexual abuse while in Joplin, Missouri, and three videos of the sexual abuse while in Clark County, Kentucky. 

Cagle admitted to sharing the videos she made with others via Dropbox. Cagle further admitted that she possessed additional images of child pornography, specifically images of female children ages 4 to 13 years of age, in her Dropbox account and admitted that she would give out her Dropbox password, so that others could upload images into her account.

Cagle was indicted in April 2019.

“There is no matter of greater importance to law enforcement than protecting innocent children from being violated and abused during the production of child pornography,” said Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “This investigation and prosecution ensures for the foreseeable future that the defendant will not be able to continue to physically victimize children.”

United States Attorney Duncan, and Steven L. Igyarto, Resident Agent in Charge for Homeland Security; and Commissioner Rodney Brewer, Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and KSP. The U.S. Attorney’s Office was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dmitry Slavin and Lauren Tanner Bradley.

Cagle is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, 2020. She faces a mandatory 15 years in prison, up to a maximum of 30 years in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000. However, any sentence will be imposed by the Court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal sentencing statutes.

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