Federal judge criticizes prosecutors and investigators at child porn sentencing

A federal judge in Kansas City blasted prosecutors and investigators Thursday for waiting more than a decade to charge a Kansas City man with 10 child pornography offenses.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple fumed at a government request to sentence Paul Leslie Kannarr, 59, to 27 years in prison, with that prison term to follow a 30-year state child porn sentence he began serving in 2001.

Federal investigators received computer forensics reports on Kannarr’s computers in 2003 after he had already been sentenced on state child porn charges. But they did not ask grand jurors for an indictment until 2013 on the federal charges, which alleged different conduct over a longer time period.

Whipple said he didn’t understand “why the FBI, with all its power, can’t indict this man for 10 years when they had all the computers.”

“It didn’t excite the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and it didn’t excite the FBI,” Whipple said.

Whipple sentenced Kannarr to 10 years in prison to be served concurrently with his remaining state time, which amounts to about 16 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Katharine Fincham argued that Kannarr remained a danger to the community and because of the “vagaries of the state parole system” he could spend far less than 30 years in prison.

She noted that he already has had two parole hearings, having served less than half his state sentence.

Fincham said authorities have followed his case closely and moved in with new charges only after he appeared to be near winning parole.

“We kept an eye on him and kept an open case,” Fincham said.

Kannarr abused a girl from the age of 6 into her early adolescence. He also took pornographic photos of her and advertised them online. In doing so, he created a popular electronic collection of child porn that has been traded thousands of times by pedophiles in the years he has been in prison, Fincham said.

Bob Kuchar, an assistant federal public defender, said he has seen no indication that state authorities are ready to release Kannarr.

“He’ll see the parole board, but Charles Manson (also) sees the parole board,” Kuchar said. “They’re in no hurry to release him.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Federal judge criticizes prosecutors and investigators at child porn sentencing."