Jonathan A. “Terp” Cripe, 28, of Imperial is scheduled to appear Nov. 29 in federal court in South Carolina where he is facing child pornography charges, court records show.
Cripe’s charges “stem from a large child pornography ring that involved 60 victims,” according to court papers.
Cripe is among eight people from across the country charged in connection with the alleged child porn ring. The defendants are accused of encouraging underage girls to pose nude online and then storing those images.
Specifically, Cripe is charged with conspiracy to advertise child pornography, conspiracy to produce child pornography and conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography. He faces a minimum penalty of 15 years in prison on the first two charges and a minimum of five years in the third charge, according to court papers.
In October 2015, after a search warrant was served, evidence was seized at an Imperial home where Cripe reportedly lives with his parents. After almost a year, charges were filed and a U.S. District of South Carolina judge issued a warrant for Cripe’s arrest. On Oct. 31, he voluntarily surrendered and was arrested that day and then appeared in the U.S. Eastern District of Missouri Eastern Division in St. Louis where the prosecution asked that he be held in jail until trial.
On Nov. 4, U.S. Magistrate Judge Shirley Padmore Mensah of the Eastern District of Missouri ruled to release Cripe from custody and ordered him to appear at the Nov. 29 hearing in the federal court in South Carolina.
The hearing is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. in Courtroom No. 1 at the J. Waties Waring Judicial Center in Charleston, S.C.
Cripe could not be reached for comment, and his attorney, Daniel A. Juengel of the Frank, Juengel and Radefeld law firm in Clayton, did not return a call for comment.