Hartville Woman To Serve 20 Years For Child Pornography

A woman from Hartville received a 20-year federal prison sentence on Thursday for using a minor to produce child pornography. Chelese Penn, 25, will not be eligible for parole, and will be supervised release for the rest of her life after she leaves prison.

Penn pleaded guilty last June 11 to both counts contained in a grand jury indictment handed up last January 20. Penn admitted she used a child, identified as Jane Doe #1, to produce child pornography between July 1, 2012, and Oct. 3, 2014. Penn also pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography over the Internet during that time.

The investigation began when undercover agents identified David Albert, 51, of Springfield, distributing pornographic images of an 11-year-old female over the Internet. Albert and Penn exchanged child pornography over the Internet.

In a separate but related case, Albert was sentenced last Sept. 9 to serve 17 years and six months in federal prison without parole after pleading guilty to the sexual exploitation of a child.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crime Task Force investigated this crime, which 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.