Federal jury finds Price guilty in child porn case

After close to three hours of deliberation on Wednesday, the jury found Rodney D. Price, 42, of Park Hills, guilty of receiving child pornography and accessing with intent to view child pornography.

The U.S. District Court Eastern District of Missouri trial in St. Louis was presided over by District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig, who set Price’s sentencing date for Jan. 31.

The charge of receiving child pornography carries a potential penalty of 5-20 years in prison. The accessing child pornography charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Price had initially been charged in St. Francois County with three counts of first-degree promoting child pornography and three counts of possession of child pornography in April 2019. The case was later transferred to federal court.

According to a probable cause statement from the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP), on March 9, 2019, portions of several files were downloaded from a local IP address.

The report states that the first file was a video lasting approximately three minutes, showing an adult male having sexual contact with a female who appeared to be around the age of 10.

The second video, lasting about one minute and 19 seconds, reportedly contained a nude female child, approximately age 11. The third video, about four seconds in length, depicted sexual contact between an adult male and a female child about 10 years old, according to the MSHP.

According to the report, the patrol was able to determine the IP address was registered to a Charter Communications customer, and after pursuing a search warrant, investigators were able to confirm the files had been shared from Price’s computer to the internet.

The court document states that on April 9, 2019, a St. Francois County search warrant was served at Price’s home. The man was at the house at the time the warrant was executed. Price had a cellular phone in his possession that he allowed officers to search.

On the phone, officers found a file-sharing app had been installed. During his initial interview with police, Price admitted he had downloaded and viewed the pornography on his phone and believed that his business partners were trying to set him up.

Price claimed that sometimes pornography would just “pop up” on his cell phone.

During a later forensic examination of the cell phone, three still images of child pornography were saved on the device. The images were taken from video files downloaded on March 9, 2019, according to the report.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Missouri’s State Technical Assistance Team and Investigator Donya Jackson. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jillian Anderson and Rob Livergood prosecuted the case.