Jackson County man arranged to have sex with teen. The child was really an officer
A Jackson County man was sentenced Monday to 12 years in federal prison for traveling to North Dakota to have illicit sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl, prosecutors said.
The purported child was actually an undercover police officer.
Andy Earl Crook, 63, of Grain Valley was already under investigation for distributing child pornography when he was arrested, according to federal prosecutors in the Western District of Missouri.
The investigation that led to Crook’s charges began in February 2018 when an FBI task force in another state executed a search warrant at the home of a local resident. There, agents found that suspect’s devices, which determined he exchanged child pornography with other people, including Crook, records show.
Two months later, Google alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Crook had stored possible child pornography on Google Photos. After he was contacted, Crook sent child pornography to an undercover agent in Kansas City.
At Crook’s house, officers in May 2018 seized his cell phone, which contained 190 images and 13 videos of child pornography, including ones that showed the exploitation of infants and toddlers, according to prosecutors
Crook was not arrested after investigators searched his home pending further investigation.
Then in September, after he had been interviewed by an FBI agent, Crook contacted someone he thought was a teenage girl in North Dakota, prosecutors said. The person was actually an officer in West Fargo, according to his plea agreement.
Crook drove to the planned meeting in a rented vehicle and was arrested, authorities said. Inside the vehicle were multiple sex toys and wine coolers, according to prosecutors.
A grand jury charged Crook with six counts in October. He pleaded guilty in April to three, including distributing child pornography, possessing child pornography and traveling across state lines to engage in illicit sexual conduct, court records show.
U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs also sentenced Crook to 10 years of supervised released after his incarceration.
The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
This story was originally published August 27, 2019 at 11:14 AM.
