By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A man with charges of possession of child pornography and failure to register as a sex offender pending in Jasper County appeared Monday in federal court on a newly filed complaint of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity.
Ivron Glen Butler, 44, who has lived in both Oronogo and Carthage in recent years, made his initial appearance on the complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield.
An affidavit filed with the complaint states that Butler’s account on the Web site MySpace was reported to a cyberspace tip line of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for allegedly having been used to instant-message underage boys. The defendant allegedly sought to trade nude pictures and to share experiences on the Internet via computer cameras.
The affidavit alleges that investigators who accessed Butler’s MySpace profile discovered videos and photographs of partially clothed children.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri stated in a news release that the case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, and the Carthage Police Department.
Investigators created an undercover MySpace account, “adopting the identity of a fictitious 13-year-old boy,” the news release stated. Butler allegedly sent pornographic pictures and instant messages as well as links to pornographic Web sites to the undercover officers posing as the boy.
The affidavit alleges that between Aug. 6 and Aug. 28 of this year, Butler made six requests through instant messaging on the Internet for a meeting with the fictitious boy.
The U.S. attorney’s office said the case is being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide federal initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.
Butler pleaded guilty in May to a reduced charge of misdemeanor stealing in a Jasper County Circuit Court case involving a computer on which Jasper County sheriff’s investigators allegedly found child pornography. He was assessed a suspended one-year sentence.
He still faces charges of possession of child pornography and failure to register as a sex offender in Jasper County. Possible trial dates are scheduled in November and December for the pornography charge.
Prior offenses
Ivron G. Butler is required to register as a sex offender because of past convictions in Clay County, Mo., for forcible sodomy, felonious restraint and armed criminal action. Court records state that he appealed the convictions and pleaded to charges of kidnapping instead. The victims in the Clay County case were 13 and 16, and were not family members, according to court records.
