Federal grand jury indicts Joplin man for victimizing children to produce child pornography

(From the U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri)

A Joplin, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury today for victimizing two children to produce child pornography.

Russell Myers, 44, was charged in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield, Mo.

Today’s indictment charges Myers with two counts of using minor victims, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe,” to produce child pornography from Jan. 1 to Feb. 20, 2024.

The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

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This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Jasper County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department, and the Joplin, Mo., Police Department.

Myers's arrest was noted in the April 19 Turner Report, which featured the following information from the probable cause statement filed in Jasper County Circuit Court:

In the Jasper County case, the Jasper County Sheriff's Office was alerted by a cyber-tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, which had been made aware of a chat history that was allegedly between Myers and another person describing a claim that Myers had been sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl on a daily basis.

In the conversation, which is described in the probable cause statement, Myers allegedly told the other person that he had "sexual contact with a boy and a girl."

A sexual act was described and Myers said he had done that act with the girl.

During interviews at the Children's Center, the children described things Myers had done to them, according to the probable cause statement, with the boy describing an assault that took place on his birthday.