David John Dohrman, 52, and Jacqueline Michelle Dohrman, 49, a married couple from House Springs, have pleaded guilty to federal charges for possession of child pornography. Each one faces up to 20 years in prison and a possible fine of $250,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
The Dohrmans are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5 by U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry, court records show.
The couple searched for and shared pictures and video of child porn with each other from January 2020 through March 2021. An investigation into the pair began in October 2020 when David Dohrman sent a video containing child sexual abuse to his wife through Facebook, according to the guilty plea agreements.
Facebook reported the video on Oct. 1, 2020, to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A St. Louis County Police detective traced the Facebook accounts to David and Michelle Dohrman and obtained a search warrant for their home in March 2021, the plea said.
David and Michelle Dohrman both said the Facebook accounts used to share the video were theirs, but David Dohrman said they had been locked out of their accounts because someone had remotely accessed and tampered with them. A detective told David Dohrman the accounts were locked because of the activity detected by Facebook, according to the plea agreement.
David Dohrman said he searched for, downloaded, possessed and sent child porn, and he said he last searched for it in January or February 2021. Michelle Dohrman also said she shared porn with her husband, using Facebook and Instagram, the plea said.
Investigators found more than 600 images of child porn on the couple’s cell phones. The couple also discussed bringing a young girl they had seen in a restaurant home from school, according to the plea.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The case was investigated by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, St. Louis County Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat 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, go to justice.gov/psc.