Former
local man gets 37 years for sodomy, porn
By Shana
Haines
Landmark reporter
A former Platte City man has been given
a combined sentence of 37 years and seven months in
state and federal penal institutions for charges related
to sodomy and child pornography.
Andy M. Deuninck, 41, pleaded guilty in
Platte County Circuit Court Tuesday morning and was
sentenced to 25 years in state prison for charges of
statutory sodomy in the first degree.
On Monday, Deuninck was sentenced in U.S.
District Court in Kansas City, Kan., to 12 years and
seven months in federal prison without parole for charges
of child pornography. According to the Office of the
United States Attorney Western District of Missouri,
Deuninck's sentence is the maximum sentence available
under federal sentencing guidelines.
On July 8, Deuninck pleaded guilty to
producing child pornography. He admitted before Presiding
Circuit Judge Owens Lee Hull Jr. that he had deviate
sexual intercourse with a 4-year-old girl between Nov.
9, 1995 and June 1, 2000.
Following the sentencing on Tuesday, a
press conference was held by Platte County Prosecuting
Attorney Eric Zahnd and assistant U.S. Attorney Roseann
Ketchmark.
Zahnd said the cooperation between his
office and the U.S. Attorney's office helped get an
effective sentence.
"By working together with the U.S.
Attorney's office to prosecute the defendant at both
the state and federal levels, we were able to guarantee
that he will spend more than two decades behind bars,"
Zahnd said.
"The defendant sodomized a young
girl and then sent pictures of his sickening crime across
the Internet," Zahnd said. "The absolutely
horrible nature of this man's actions warranted every
effort to bring him to justice and see that he spends
a long, long time in prison."
According to Zahnd the investigation began
when a New York woman's husband, who had been having
an on-line affair with Deuninck, found child pornography
on their home computer and contacted the Department
of Social Services in New York on Aug. 4, 2000.
The man told authorities that when his
wife left him, he began searching their home computer
for information about her whereabouts and discovered
images of child pornography that had been sent by Deuninck.
In computer records of their Internet chat session,
Deuninck described in detail how he molested a 4 year-old
girl.
The Missouri Division of Family Services,
after receiving a report from New York, contacted the
Platte City Police Department. The case was then further
investigated by Sgt. Dennis Trabue of the Platte City
Police Department.
Deuninck admitted in federal court that
he took pornographic photos of a 4-year-old girl between
Dec. 25, 1999, and March 7, 2000, and transmitted those
photos over the Internet. He also admitted that between
Oct. 1, 1999, and June 1, 2000, he transmitted over
the Internet at least 20 images of minors engaging in
sexually explicit conduct. Some of the photos portrayed
minors under the age of 12. Some of the images portrayed
sadistic and masochistic conduct or other depictions
of violence.
Deuninck transported the child pornography
from his home in Platte City to his office at the Munson
Army Health Center at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., where he
worked for Science Applications International Corporation.
Deuninck loaded those images on his work computer and
transmitted them over the Internet from his work computer
to the woman in New York.
According to Ketchmark, the woman in New
York will face sentencing Oct. 14.
U.S. Attorney Todd Graves was in Washington,
D.C. and unable to attend Tuesday's press conference.
In a written statement issued by his office, Graves
said:
"Our goal was to gain the harshest
punishment possible for the scope of the defendant's
criminal behavior. Federal statutes provide a harsher
punishment than state law for the child pornography
violation, while state court was a better venue to get
the longest possible sentence on the sodomy violation."
The federal case was prosecuted by Assistant
U.S. Attorneys Katharine Fincham and David M. Ketchmark.
The state case was prosecuted by David M. Ketchmark,
who has been cross-designated as an assistant prosecuting
attorney for the Platte County Prosecutor's Office.
The case was investigated by the Platte
City Police, the Kansas City Police Dept., the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, and the Brooklyn, New York
Police Department.
