KS man charged after child porn images, some possibly taken at his house, found on phone

A southeast Kansas man is facing criminal charges in federal court for allegedly possessing child pornography and taking explicit photographs of a 10-year-old girl at his house.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday returned an indictment charging 35-year-old Joel Cypert with one count of sexual exploitation of a child - production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, according to a Thursday news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Kansas announcing the indictment.

Authorities discovered the illegal material after a software company in March notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that pornographic images of kids had been uploaded to its cloud-based storage backup service, according to an affidavit attached to a complaint filed in federal court on Nov. 18.

Police linked the uploads to Cypert using a telephone number. A search warrant executed at his Columbus home in April netted a cellphone that contained around 21 gifs, at least 50 images, around 20 screenshots and at least 16 videos — at least some of which showed children in sexually explicit situations, the affidavit says.

Six files showed a 10-year-old girl who was photographed or filmed in what authorities think is Cypert’s living room, the document says.

In an interview with law enforcement, Cypert denied responsibility for uploading the images and instead blamed a family member who had access to his phone, the affidavit says.

Cypert has a detention hearing scheduled at the federal courthouse in Wichita on Dec. 14, court records show.

Producing child pornography carries a penalty of 15 to 30 years in federal prison and possession of child pornography is punishable with up to 20 years.