ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis man on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to an indictment accusing him of illegal sexual activity with a minor.
Harold Paul White, 54, was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis November 20 with one count of production of child pornography and one count of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. The indictment accuses White of inducing or coercing a minor into sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of that conduct on Aug. 25, 2023, and of traveling from Michigan to Missouri on that date for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct.
During a detention hearing in court Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Klocke said White met the 12-year-old victim online, traveled to Michigan to have sex with her and then returned with her to Missouri, where he produced recordings of her and shared them with other underage girls.
Charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and do not constitute proof of guilt. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The production of child pornography charge is punishable by a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and maximum of 30 years in prison. The travel with intent charge carries a term of up to 30 years in prison.
The Detroit Police Department, the FBI and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dianna Edwards is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
