Rogersville man who created child pornography with 12-year-old Alba girl pleads guilty

A Rogersville man who admitted to producing child pornography with a 12-year-old Alba girl pleaded guilty during a hearing this morning in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Under a plea bargain agreement, Jacob Ethan Patterson, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of children. Under federal sentencing guidelines, Patterson will receive at least 15 years in prison when he is sentenced. He could receive up to 30 years.

Under the agreement, an additional charge of sexual exploitation of a child and the child pornography charge were dismissed.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Patterson also sexually exploited a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old girl.

The Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force was tipped off by a Canadian law enforcement official who had arrested a man named Daniel Bergsma who had Snapchat conversations with Patterson, the affidavit said. The authorities were able to recover the conversations because Bergsma recorded them.

The recordings of the younger children featured them nude and in one instance showed an adult male pressing his sex organ against one of the girls.

The Jasper County child was fully clothed in most of the images, according to the affidavit, though in one Patterson was rubbing himself through his pants.

In that media, the camera captures both Casting_Cloud95' s (Patterson's name on SnapChat) act of grabbing his genitals and Jane Doe Three as she lays on the couch with her upper buttocks exposed.

Investigators were able to determine the 12-year-old was from Alba after finding a comment on Patterson's Facebook page, checking the Facebook page of the person who left the comment and using public images on that page that showed the same furniture that had been depicted in the images.

When investigators questioned Patterson, he admitted he produced the child pornography.

This affiant showed PATTERSON sanitized versions of the images of Jane Doe Three. PATTERSON identified Jane Doe Three and admitted he produced the images. He confirmed that the video depicted him masturbating while Jane Doe Three was in the background with the top of her buttocks exposed. He said this occurred at Jane Doe Three's home.

Patterson also acknowledged creating the pornography involving the younger children, though he could not remember which child he had pressed himself against.

The crimes took place between May 5 and November 1, 2021 according to the charging information.