Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Monday, July 24, 2023
Missouri Woman Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for the Sexual Exploitation of Children
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Missouri Woman Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for the Sexual Exploitation of Children
WASHINGTON – Brittany Bailey, 34, of Columbia, Missouri, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release for the sexual exploitation of children, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Sarah Linden of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division.
Bailey pleaded guilty, on August 25, 2021, to advertising child pornography. In addition to the prison term and supervised release, U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates ordered Bailey to register as a sex offender for 25 years, and to pay restitution in the amount of $25,000 to the minor victims she harmed.
According to court documents, in 2019, Bailey was involved with an online Internet group called “Taboo Parents.” She engaged with a person she believed to be another member of the group, but who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer. Believing that she was chatting with a pedophile, Bailey sent photographs of herself telling him she wanted him to sexually abuse the child shown in the images that she sent. Bailey went on to create other online chat group dedicated to exchanging child sexual abuse material, and she invited users to and banned users from the group. She setup rules for the members of the groups, and she told members about her sexual preferences and encouraged them to share child sex abuse material with the group. After making these comments, multiple users shared child pornography in the group chat. Bailey shared four different videos of child pornography in the chat. The videos all depicted young girls, some as young as toddlers. One month later, on May 1, 2019, agents executed a search warrant at Bailey’s residence in Columbia, Missouri. They recovered her electronic devices, including her cellular phone, which contained images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.
This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes members of the FBI's Washington Field Office and MPD. In February 2006, the Attorney General created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorney's Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, with assistance from the Kansas City Field Office’s Jefferson City Resident Agency. It was prosecuted, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, by Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Burrell of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Springfield Man Sentenced to 15 Years for Sexual Exploitation of a Child
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for the sexual exploitation of a 14-year-old victim.
Jared Neal Gonzales, 26, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to 15 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Gonzales to 10 years of supervised release following incarceration. Gonzales will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.
On Nov. 8, 2022, Gonzales pleaded guilty to one count of using a minor to produce child pornography. Gonzales admitted he was in a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. Gonzalez also admitted they used a cell phone to record themselves having sexual intercourse. On at least two occasions, at Gonzales’s request, the child victim used her cell phone to send him videos of the couple engaged in sexual intercourse.
Gonzales has also been charged in the Circuit Court of Greene County, Mo., for sexual misconduct involving a child and attempted statutory sodomy in the second degree in relation to this conduct.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan. It was investigated by the FBI and the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.
Project Safe Childhood
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
Monday, July 10, 2023
Truesdale Man Sentenced for Carjacking in Springfield
PRESS RELEASE
Friday, July 7, 2023
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Truesdale, Mo., man has been sentenced in federal court for stealing a woman’s car at knifepoint in Springfield, Mo.
Michael Brian Free, 50, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes on Thursday, July 6, to seven years in federal prison without parole.
On Feb. 9, 2023, Free pleaded guilty to one count of taking a motor vehicle by force, violence, and intimidation, with the intent to cause death and serious bodily harm.
Free admitted that he pointed a knife at a woman who was getting gas at a Springfield convenience store on April 30, 2022. After she had paid for her gas and stepped back out to her 2011 Chevy Impala next to the fuel pumps, Free approached her, pulled out a knife and demanded her car keys. Free threatened to stab her in the neck if she didn’t give him the keys to her car. She gave him the keys then fled into the store and called the police.
Video footage from the store captured Free making a purchase inside the store. Investigators were able to use the store’s financial records to help identify Free.
Free was driving the stolen vehicle when he was arrested in the Des Moines, Iowa, area in May 2022.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney. It was investigated by the Springfield, Mo., Police Department and the FBI.
Saturday, July 8, 2023
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Wisconsin Man Sentenced for Sex Trafficking a Child
PRESS RELEASE
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Milwaukee, Wisconsin man was sentenced in federal court today for the sex trafficking of a child.
Gerald H. Paul-Gibson, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to 10 years in federal prison without parole. The court also sentenced Paul-Gibson to 10 years of supervised release following incarceration.
On March 9, 2022, Paul-Gibson pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking of a child. Paul-Gibson admitted that he recruited, transported, and advertised a 15-year-old victim for prostitution, and either knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that the child victim was under the age of 18.
Kansas City, Mo., police officers initially arrested the child victim for soliciting prostitution during a human trafficking sting at a local hotel on April 24, 2019. Once arrested, officers recognized she was a minor. She identified herself via her high school email address and confirmed she was 15 years old.
The child victim told investigators she met Paul-Gibson in Milwaukee and he brought her to Kansas City. Paul-Gibson placed advertisements online and transported her to the hotel for the appointment with an undercover police officer. Paul-Gibson, who was parked outside the hotel, was arrested. When investigators searched his cell phone, they found a large number of text messages that confirmed Paul-Gibson recruited women for prostitution. In some conversations, Paul-Gibson refers to himself as a pimp.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine A. Connelly. It was investigated by the FBI and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.
Project Safe Childhood
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."
EPA Announces New Framework to Prevent Unsafe New PFAS from Entering the Market
EPA Press Office:
EPA Announces New Framework to Prevent Unsafe New PFAS from Entering the Market
Contact: EPA Press Office (press@epa.gov)
WASHINGTON (June 29, 2023) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its framework for addressing new and new uses of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The framework outlines EPA’s planned approach when reviewing new PFAS and new uses of PFAS to ensure that, before these chemicals are allowed to enter into commerce, EPA will undertake an extensive evaluation to ensure they pose no harm to human health and the environment. The framework supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to address the impacts of these forever chemicals and advances EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap to confront the human health and environmental risks of PFAS pollution.
“For decades, PFAS have been released into the environment without the necessary measures in place to protect people’s health – but with this framework, EPA is working to reduce the risk posed by these persistent contaminants,” said Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff. “EPA’s new framework will ensure that before any new PFAS enter the market, these chemicals are extensively evaluated and pose no risk to people’s health or the environment.”
Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 5, EPA is required to review new chemicals, including new PFAS and new uses of PFAS, within 90 days, assess the potential risks to human health and the environment of the chemical, and make one of five possible risk determinations. When potential risks are identified, EPA must take action to mitigate those risks before the chemical can enter commerce.
New PFAS present a challenge for EPA to evaluate because there is often insufficient information to quantify the risk they may pose and consequently to make effective decisions about how to regulate them. Many PFAS are known to persist and bioaccumulate (i.e., build up) in the environment and people and pose potential risks not only to those who directly manufacture, process, distribute, use, and dispose of the chemical substance but also to the public, including communities who may be exposed to PFAS pollution or waste and already overburdened communities. This framework will be used to qualitatively assess PFAS that are likely persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals.
The New Framework
Under the framework, EPA expects that some PBT PFAS will not result in worker, general population or consumer exposure and are not expected to result in releases to the environment, such as when PFAS are used in a closed system with occupational protections as is generally the practice in the manufacture of some semiconductors and other electronic components. In such a negligible exposure and environmental release scenario, if EPA can ensure that such PBT PFAS can be disposed of properly and no consumer exposure is expected, EPA generally expects to allow the PFAS or the new use of a PFAS to enter commerce after receiving basic information, such as physical-chemical property data, about the substance. If the initial data cause concern, then EPA will require additional testing and risk mitigation before moving forward.
For PBT PFAS that are expected to have a low - but greater than negligible - potential for release and environmental exposure, EPA generally expects to require test data in addition to physical chemical properties, such as toxicokinetic data, before allowing manufacturing to commence. If initial test results cause concern, then EPA will require additional testing and risk mitigation before moving forward.
For PBT PFAS that are expected to lead to exposure and environmental releases, and absent a critical use or military need for the substance that necessitates limited and restricted manufacture while testing is ongoing, EPA generally expects that the substance would not be allowed to enter commerce before extensive testing is conducted on physical/chemical properties, toxicity and fate. For example, use of PFAS in spray-applied stain guards inherently involves releases to the environment. If the test results cause concern, then EPA could require additional testing and risk mitigation before moving forward, or could prevent the substance from being manufactured at all.
By distinguishing uses that could result in environmental releases and those with expected worker, community, or consumer exposure, from those that won’t, as well as requiring upfront testing for many PFAS, the application of the Framework will help ensure that any new PFAS won’t harm human health and the environment. At the same time, it also will allow certain PFAS to be used when exposures and releases can be mitigated, and where such use is critical for important sectors like semiconductors. These policy changes are aligned with the EPA PFAS Strategic Roadmap and help prevent any unsafe new PFAS from entering the environment or harming human health.
The data EPA will obtain on physical/chemical properties for any new PBT PFAS under this Framework and more extensive toxicity and fate data for PFAS with potential exposures or releases will also support EPA’s efforts under the National PFAS Testing Strategy and advance the Agency’s understanding of PFAS more broadly.
The Framework will apply to new PFAS or new use notices that are currently under EPA review, as well as any that EPA may receive in the future. This summer, EPA will offer a public webinar about the Framework. The date, time, and registration information will be announced soon.