U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III sentenced Alexander Douglas Kuhn, 35, of Craven County, to 40 years in federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography.<\/p>\n
Kuhn, a former U.S. Marine, pleaded guilty on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n
Kuhn lived on Tebo Road in New Bern, where a federal search warrant was executed July 13, 2023, to search the property and his electronic devices after U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigators identified him as a potential sex crime suspect on the social networking app Grindr and the messaging app Discord.<\/p>\n
According to Ellis Boyle, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Kuhn claimed during online conversations with undercover agents in June 2023 that he was abusing a 3-year-old child and offered the child to investigators for future abuse.<\/p>\n
In addition, Kuhn requested to sexually abuse a fabricated 12-year-old child that an undercover agent pretended to offer as part of the investigation.<\/p>\n
On July 19, 2023, HSI agents and Craven County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputies arrested Kuhn at his home in New Bern for an event believed to have occurred on the offense date of Nov. 1, 2022.<\/p>\n
Kuhn later admitted during interviews with investigators that he had sexually abused the 3-year-old child for more than a year, including taking photos and videos of the child and distributing them online.<\/p>\n
Investigators corroborated Kuhn\u2019s admission through an investigation of his internet activity and electronic devices, where they found numerous photos and videos of Kuhn sexually abusing the child, as well as pornographic images of other children.<\/p>\n
Boyle and Sheriff Chip Hughes of Craven County said Kuhn, then 32, was charged with statutory sex offense with a child by an adult, indecent liberties with a child, solicitation of a child by computer and first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.<\/p>\n
He was transported to the Craven County Detention Facility, where he was issued a $1.5 million unsecured bond.<\/p>\n
According to N.C. Judicial Branch court records, Kuhn\u2019s spouse filed a family law complaint on Nov. 7, 2023. The lawsuit sought multiple forms of civil and financial relief following their separation.<\/p>\n
The filing requested immediate custody and asset seizure, and Kuhn\u2019s spouse successfully obtained temporary emergency custody of their children and an order regarding the proceeds from the sale of their home. Kuhn was personally served by the sheriff Nov. 13, 2023, while in custody.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, Kuhn\u2019s legal counsel changed multiple times throughout his criminal case. His public defender filed a motion to withdraw from the case on March 31. New counsel was appointed to Kuhn on July 7 in preparation for the motion hearing, during which he was sentenced by Dever.<\/p>\n
Kuhn\u2019s disposition hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10 at 10 a.m. in Craven County Superior Court.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe actions uncovered were deeply disturbing, and our agents worked tirelessly to ensure the victims received justice and support,\u201d HSI Special Agent Mark Zito said. \u201cWe thank Naval Criminal Investigative Services, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Craven County Sheriff\u2019s Office for their collaboration throughout this investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHSI remains committed to pursuing those who exploit children and bringing them before the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prosecution is 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 launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
Led by U.S. Attorneys\u2019 Offices and Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals use federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis disgusting pervert will no longer target the young and vulnerable. There is a special place for him in this world. It\u2019s called prison,\u201d Boyle said. \u201cWe will continue to hunt down and stomp out all these spiders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boyle made a similar statement regarding the recent sentencing of Wilmington man Tony Michael Crisco, 35, to 50 years in federal prison for similar crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis sick individual will no longer be able to harm those who cannot protect themselves,\u201d Boyle said about Crisco\u2019s sentencing. \u201cHe preyed on vulnerable children by abusing and manipulating them to produce explicit content for his own gratification.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis spider will now spin his web stuck behind cold steel bars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III sentenced Alexander Douglas Kuhn, 35, of Craven County, to 40 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[104,1655,305],"class_list":["post-108390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bern","tag-bern","tag-crime","tag-local"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116990568401606863","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}